Oldham woman scammed out of £20k by romance fraudsters pretending to be millionaire

A man has warned people looking for romance about the dangers of fraudsters after his sister was scammed out of tens of thousands of pounds.

The man has shared his sister’s experience of falling victim to romance fraud to help prevent others from being manipulated into sending money to scammers online.

Starting in 2022, his sister Alice – whose name has been changed to protect her identity – sent £20,000 over the course of 18 months to romance fraudsters.

Alice, who was 81 when this began, thought she had fallen in love with a man she met via an online scrabble game and having built up a connection, the man began requesting money.

Alice’s brother David – whose name has also been changed – spoke of how his sister lost her husband a few years earlier, and said that even though she had a good circle of friends and family around her, she still felt lonely.

David said the scammers are ‘very clever’ and ‘target things like online scrabble because they know this is a place where they’ll find older women with a bit of money’.

He said: “My sister believed she was dating a 60-year-old millionaire in the United States who was promising to come over and look after her and give her a second chance at love. It was all a lie.”

Alice felt that the fraudster understood her. He said he was a Christian, a father and that he too was a widow, just like her.

David continued: “We knew Alice’s behaviour had changed but we found out something was seriously wrong when she came to my wife and I for help. She said I’ve been a fool; I’ve just been to the bank and I’ve been sending money to someone abroad.

“There have been many different scams in total that we know of targeting my sister – but I think it’s either all the same person or a group of scammers who are based somewhere in Nigeria.

“Some of the stories they tell really are just unbelievable, but they prey on the most trusting and vulnerable people.

“The first scam we became aware of was a man claiming to be an American millionaire who was working on an oil rig. There came a day when he supposedly didn’t have access to his card and he told Alice that his daughter needed an operation that afternoon.

“He put pressure on her, saying the surgeon needed payment then and there or his daughter was going to lose her leg. And Alice just sent the money to him because they’d been talking that long, and she believed he was who he said he was.”

David eventually got Power of Attorney and now supports the bank in investigating suspicious transactions on Alice’s accounts, though they still don’t know the identity of the scammer. 

He also says disentangling Alice from his web of lies hasn’t been easy and that she became distracted and even forgot birthdays as she became totally immersed in the relationship.

David hopes other victim’s will learn from his sister’s story, realise they are being scammed and will report to Action Fraud. Likewise, he hopes friends and families of victims will be able to spot the signs that something is wrong.

As he adds: “Everyone should be suspicious if someone they don’t know contacts them online. I dread to think what could have happened if my wife and I weren’t there for Alice – the scammers could have drained her account and left her with nothing.

“The photos and videos that my sister received seemed genuine, but I found out how to do a reverse image search and was able to show her they were all fake. 

“It makes me really angry because they’ve deliberately targeted someone who is elderly and vulnerable, but I hope that by speaking out this will help protect other victims.”

David has since reported the matter to Greater Manchester Police, and was given the number for a helpline and advice on how to take the investigation further.

Detective Sergeant Stacey Shannon of GMP Economic Crime Unit said David and Alice’s story is ‘far from unique and there are many people who fall victim to such scams’. She warned people to ‘stop and think before responding to strangers you’ve met online, especially if they start asking for money’. 

“If you suspect you or someone you know is a victim of romance fraud, please seek help sooner rather than later and report it,” she added.