Fall for the person, not the profile – Cambridgeshire woman who lost £100k shares her story as reports of romance fraud rise 26 per cent nationally

Police forces across the country are working together with partners to tackle romance fraud, with a combination of awareness raising and enforcement activity.

The multi-agency campaign, running throughout October, aims to raise awareness of romance fraud and provide clear protection advice to the public, following a 26 per cent rise in reports to Action Fraud in the last year.

Romance fraud, or dating fraud, occurs when someone thinks they’ve met the perfect partner online, but the person is using a fake profile to form a relationship.

They gain the victim’s trust over a number of weeks or months and until they believe they are in a loving and caring relationship. However, the criminal’s end goal is only ever to get money or personal information.

Between August 2019 and August 2020, Action Fraud received more than 400 reports a month from victims of romance fraud in the UK. Losses reported by victims during this time totalled £66,335,239, equating to an average loss per victim of more than £10,000.

During June, July and August 2020, Action Fraud received more than 600 reports per month of romance fraud, indicating people may have met, and begun talking to, romance fraudsters during the national lockdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

A Cambridgeshire woman, who doesn’t wish to be identified, had more than £100,000 stolen as part of a romance fraud.

She said: “These people have been taught to do what they do. They are trained. And they are very very professional. Their aim is to steal your money and, come hell or high water, they will get under your skin and make you care for them. Make you believe them. And then rob you of everything you have.”

Fraud lead for Cambridgeshire constabulary, Detective Inspector, Tom Rowe, said: “Romance fraud, which sees the victim deliberately targeted and defrauded through the promise of a personal relationship, can have an incredibly detrimental impact upon the victim – not just financially, but also mentally too.

“Police forces across the country and internationally are now working ever more closely to support victims and identify those responsible to bring them to justice.

“Whether you have been affected, or know someone who has, please report to the police as soon as possible.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Alex Rothwell, from the City of London Police, said: “Romance fraud is a devastating crime that impacts victims both financially and emotionally. It is a crime that we in policing across the UK, are committed to tackling with help from key partners. Through this campaign we want to empower people to understand what to look out for and feel confident that if they have fallen victim to a fraud, to report it to us.

“Criminals are experts at impersonating people. They spend hours researching you for their scams, especially when committing romance fraud. We’re reminding everyone to stop and think: fall for the person, not the profile, it could protect you and your money.”

The top five platforms where victims reported first interacting with the criminal committing romance fraud were Facebook, Plenty of Fish, Instagram, Tinder and Match.com.

As part of the campaign the Match Group, who own OK Cupid, Plenty of Fish, Tinder and Match.com, are running romance fraud protection adverts throughout October on these platforms, to inform their users how to spot the signs of a romance fraud and how to protect themselves online.

For more advice on romance fraud, visit: https://bit.ly/2H1OXW7

This is Cambridgeshire woman Megan's story (not her real name) in her own words:

"I’ve been a caring and open individual my whole life. I’ve worked in the NHS for many years, dedicating my life to helping others, and would never consider myself to be unintelligent or confused by the online world.

"Ben approached me on a dating website. I’d been very honest on my profile, owning up to the fact I was recently divorced, lonely and looking for love. I didn’t think at the time I was revealing too much, I just thought it would help weed out any time wasters.

"He told me he was from Birmingham and supplied materials to the construction industry. He said his father had recently passed away and his mother had moved back to her home country of Sweden. His picture was very handsome and I didn’t think twice about exchanging email addresses and telephone numbers.

"At the time I didn’t think anything of it as I had a way to contact him and him me. We talked for a few weeks, he was very loving and was even teaching me Swedish! We had a number of phone calls and I never really suspected he could be someone else.

"During one conversation, Ben told me he was sending ten 40 foot containers of construction material to Ghana but the warehouse they had rented to store the material wasn’t big enough. He said his bank account was frozen and could I help him pay to upgrade to a bigger warehouse.

"After that another request came. This time he needed help paying the port taxes.

"Each time I was sending money to a UK bank account so my suspicions weren’t massively raised. I did challenge him once and told him he was a fraudster but he got upset and angry at me and I instantly felt bad. To check he was who he said he was, I asked him to send me a photocopy of his passport which he dutifully did. I later found out it was a fake.

"The largest amount I sent over was for £50,000 when Ben told me a forklift driver had been crushed under a container at the warehouse and he had to pay compensation to the family.

"By this stage Ben had sent me copies of reservations he’d made at a local hotel where he was going to come and see me, but four months after we’d first started talking I went to my bank to enquire about taking out another loan and they told me they thought I was a victim of fraud. I’d lost £110,000.

"After hearing that from the bank, I was committed to finding out the truth about Ben. I used a reverse image search tool to find the pictures he had used. They were stolen from the Facebook profile of a man from Florence, Italy. I also found the original image of the passport he had sent me. It was from a news article in the Phuket Gazette in Thailand where a Swedish man had been found dead in 2011.

"To help Ben out, I’d taken out a loan and I couldn’t pay it back. The loan company were charging interest and I had to sell my house to pay it off, spending more money on keeping my belongings in storage. I spent even more money on paying for a barrister to help me fight some of the charges. I was a victim of a crime! But nothing worked.

"These people have been taught to do what they do. They are trained. And they are very very professional. Their aim is to steal your money and, come hell or high water, they will get under your skin and make you care for them. Make you believe them. And then rob you of everything you have.

"I can’t do a post-mortem on what happened now, I just have to live with it but it makes me upset and angry that I’ve been forced to take a different path in life than the one I’ve spent years planning for myself.

"If I could give one piece of advice to people looking for love online it would be this; stay on the dating platform – do not come off the app or website. That way your conversations can be monitored and evidenced. If the person you are speaking to is genuine, they won’t mind. I also think it’s important not to get carried away and reveal too much about yourself like I did. You could become a target for these despicable criminals."