Sue was heartbroken when she lost her husband of 40 years but when she was able to pick herself up and get back into the world of dating, the inconceivable happened as she recounted her story for BBC’s Scam Safe initiative. The retiree had joined an online dating group after a few years of settling into her new life as a widow when she met ‘John’.
He explained how he had been a widower for six years and was currently staying in Dubai after a successful career in civil engineering. Claiming to be 71, the hopeful romantic shared some of his alleged photos and Sue was smitten, admitting: “He looked quite decent.”
After just a few days of messaging, John declared his love for Sue and what should’ve been a heartfelt moment set off alarm bells for the Staffordshire resident. She started suspecting she was being pulled into a dating scam, a category of fraud which has been steadily increasing since 2019.
Sue, 72, continued chatting to John, daily during the first week but then he suddenly went quiet for a few days. When he returned, he shared a harrowing tale to explain his absence: “He popped back up and said that he’d been mugged and he’d been shot in the leg. He’d been taken to hospital.”
He said he was contacting his beloved from his hospital bed and hadn’t been able to eat in two days. John pleaded with Sue to send him some money in the form of gift cards so he could afford something to eat.
The savvy retiree checked the hospital did actually exist but still believed something was off and adamantly refused to send him any money. The scammer continued his pleas, now claiming he couldn’t pay his hospital bills but Sue stood her ground: “I just said I’m sorry I can’t.”
She then contacted BBC’s Morning Live, who were warned by Det Insp Kerry Skingle, from Staffordshire Police, that these types of scammers try to build an emotional relationship with their victims. She said: “They go to great lengths to gain their trust and convince them that they are in a genuine relationship, with the ultimate aim of defrauding them out of their hard-earned money.”