How Scammers Con People out of Their Savings | Romance Scams | ENDEVR Documentary

every year millions of pounds are stolen from unsuspecting victims under the guise of love [Music] the type of crime we're investigating is a confidence trick call it what you will romance scam blackmail gold digger whatever the name it doesn't begin to describe the horrific impact these crimes can have on the people who have been targeted as well as being life-changing these crimes are very much on the rise with victims losing an average of more than 11 000 pounds well we are here to stop the scammers in their tracks and as we get to the bottom of how they were able to pull off some of the most audacious cons we'll have everything you need to know to make sure you and your money stay safe coming up we uncover the truth about the so-called surgeon who broke this woman's heart and stole her money too we believe you've taken around 1400 pounds from Susan and you're now trying to extort a further 250 pounds from her what do you say to that Perry have a business contact ended up conning this woman out of thousands at that time he knew he got me and he felt that I would do anything for him and how this man battled back after what seemed like his dream woman took away his cash and his confidence it just dropped out of my body I just felt like getting in the car driving to the end of the road and ending me life so we've been contacted by a lady called Susan she suspects she's being scammed by a man called Perry pal take a look my daughter always said that I should meet somebody else so she set me up on a dating site when I saw Perry Powell on the site I thought he was attractive he was very Charming he said I don't have any access to my own money I feel embarrassed that I fell for somebody who sort of feel I feel it was made a fool to me but really like to meet this person who is so fell in love with to me that sounds like she still believes that that is a genuine person Susan half hope in the man who scammed her could still turn out to be for real I need to find Dr Perry Powell and fast so she isn't persuaded to hand over any more money while Ashley cracks on with that I'm in Bristol to find out more about retired care worker Susan and how she met her man hello I'm Kim nice to meet you after her husband died one of Susan's daughters suggested that a way to rebuild her life might be to try internet dating she said mum we need to get you out and about go out on some dates yeah even if it's only a coffee or a meal and you just meet people so you were quite comfortable to do this or yeah yeah I know lots of people that have met people on dating sites and living happily ever after almost immediately after signing up to the site Susan was contacted by Dr Perry Powell who told her he was 67 and Swedish born but living in London Perry also said that he was divorced since his ex-wife left for his best friend so what was it you said he did for a living he told me he was a surgeon a surgeon in a hospital in Israel and did he tell you why he was in Israel he told me he was working for the United Nations he'd been posted out to Israel it wasn't long before Perry moved their chats off the dating website and onto the phone messaging service WhatsApp and so the kind of conversations you were having were quite normal conversation for a man and a woman to be happening at the start of a what is potentially a relationship that's right he sounded exactly as he portrayed himself actually yeah um he was he sounded a real gentleman over the next couple of months they became very close texting sometimes 20 to 30 times a day always said good night always said good morning I know it sounds awful but I sort of fallen in love with somebody I hadn't even met just sounded so perfect yeah Christmas around the corner and Dr Perry Powell apparently unable to get home for the holidays Susan sent him some presents to Israel he said he was a very Avid Reader so I bought some books I bought him a silk tie nothing extravagant yeah I think the whole total came to about 50 pounds but fearing the relationship was too good to be true Susan began asking Perry to take some more recent photographs or selfies I kept asking him to send me a photograph of himself because I just wanted to prove yeah who he was I must have asked him a hundred times how do I know you're real okay and he didn't send you a selfie no he sent me photographs okay but they weren't selfish Perry eventually updated her with one photo that showed him holding one of the books she had bought him and not long after that he called Susan with some news he said he'd been given some gold from a wealthy patient whose life he'd saved but in order to bring it back to the UK legally he'd have to pay the duty on it and there was a reason why he needed Susan's help with that he asked me for 470 something pounds for a certificate from Israeli Customs seeing he had no access to any of his own money did you suddenly think why haven't you got access to your own money because presumably that kind of a job you might think would be quite well paid would it not yeah him kept making excuses and they were quite convincing excuses actually and it would only be alone and I sort of spoiled it then and I I believed him okay and there seemed no reason not to believe him as Perry very quickly sent Susan a receipt and a custom certificate for the gold so did you tell anybody at this point like did you tell any of your family or friends everyone knew I was taxing him okay but I never told anybody that he'd asked me for anything I don't know I just went with my heart instead of my head whilst Kim has been finding out more about Susan's romance I've been checking out some of the finer details on the paperwork sent from Perry I Gary miles is an economic crime specialist with the Met police and has agreed to look at some of Susan's evidence in more detail alrighty Gary how you doing nice to meet you nice to meet you starting with the importation documents in Susan's case she was sent these certificates this one this one so the first thing that I spot is on the um the custom stance it describes it as preventive services so I'd start looking at things like to see if there is actually somewhere that government Department in in existence Israel spelled wrongly oh yeah oh my days it is that is so bad you know lowercase I spelled wrong is real yeah generally speaking official documents don't contain spelling mistakes or serious grammatical errors so if you spot one of them straight away that should raise your suspicions it won't tell you 100 that it's it's a false document but it should start raising your suspicions Perry had sent pictures of himself holding one of the books that Susan gave him and while asking for photo evidence isn't a bad way of testing whether the person you're dealing with is genuine you need to look very carefully at whatever you're sent image software like Photoshop has made it easy to digitally edit and manipulate virtually any picture just instinctively looking at it that would appear that he's holding a couple or something along those lines and then they've photoshopped that book in inside and they photoshopped to the face on in front yeah genuinely speaking there's there's the ability to do a reverse lookup on on on the image itself and what she might have actually found was that's an image that is online on the internet and they've reaped it off and then just put somebody's face on in front sounds like I need to do a bit more digging to see if that's what's happened here and if it is find out who's really in the pictures Dr Perry pal will send in to Susan scams like these don't always start on dating websites fraudster is using exactly the same techniques can crop up anywhere meaning any one of us could be at risk in our next case Olivia Willie wasn't looking for love at all she was after professional context to help with her business but things turned out very differently originally from the Philippines mental health professional Olivia Willey joined business networking site LinkedIn to make some valuable connections for work so there seemed no reason to be suspicious when she was contacted out of the blue by a man called Gary Ralston it says on his profile he was a petroleum engineer he looked to me like he was from the Philippines I was planning to start my own business and I thought it's good to have lots of connections according to Gary's profile he was a Malaysian American oil rig engineer based out of Doha Qatar working for the petrol giant Exxon Mobil it was very polite when he came to me he added me he messaged me and he was very very kind and polite Gary's next move was straight out of the scammers handbook he suggested they ditch LinkedIn and swap phone numbers so they could continue their Chats on WhatsApp and it wasn't long before he told Olivia he was planning to come and see her in the UK at that time he didn't cross my mind that it was going to be a relationship because I thought that he just wanted me to show him around London that was the only goal but what seemed to start as a routine Business Connection soon took a more romantic turn he messaged me every single day more than once a day and and he invited me to go on holiday to Cyprus but I just laughed at the idea because I said I'm a complete stranger how could he trust me over time her feelings towards Gary deepened but because she was only recently divorced and not really looking for love she was cautious about his intentions asking a lot of questions to reassure herself so I'm aware of scammers stealing other people's profiles and not not a lot of people put double takes or photos of themselves on their social media so I thought this looked real and it's really him because it's two takes like where would he steal photos of another person having two takes at that time he knew he got me and he felt that I would do anything for him relationship developed Olivia suggested she book a trip out to see him in Doha for later in the year something Gary appeared delighted about I said to myself yes I am going to Doha and then I bought a return ticket to Doha and booked a hotel he was so excited he cannot wait for my visit and that's when Gary began his scam a few days later he called Olivia from the oil rig and told her he was experiencing internet problems logging onto his online bank account he needed to urgently pay a business supplier and asked Olivia whether she could log on to his account and transfer the money for him he said I needed you to transfer seven hundred thousand dollars to a company to pay for an oil rig equipment I did that because he said he was going to lose his job if he wouldn't pay the supplier as soon as possible he gave me his username the password and a PIN number when I logged on to his online banking I could see the balance in his account it was at that time one million five hundred ninety thousand dollars having logged into what she thought was Gary's genuine bank account Olivia transferred the seven hundred thousand dollars nearly 600 000 pounds on Gary's behalf he was relieved he said I did him a very big favor I was so happy that I helped him but Gary's internet issues persisted a few days later he told her he now had 24 hours to pay for the equipment shipping costs and asked Olivia to log into his bank account again and this time transfer a further 6 300 pounds I said that's fine because the first one was seven hundred thousand and I've done it why would I have second thoughts over six thousand three hundred dollars but this time the transaction didn't go through Gary told her he'd find out why and when he got back to Olivia he said that because his account had been accessed from an unauthorized location it had been frozen for 25 days while his bank carried out an investigation that he contacted his colleagues and his friends to pull some money for him after a few frantic hours Gary told her that his friends had managed to club together most of the cash but that still left Olivia feeling like she needed to raise a further two thousand pounds to get him over the line my heart ruled my mind at that time and I was under his control I took a loan from a Payday company and lent him some money to complete the two thousand dollars at that time I didn't feel it was very risky I was confident he was going to pay me back with his bank accounts Frozen Olivia even offered to send Gary more money to help with his day-to-day living expenses Gary accepted and told her he'd pay her all the money back when she came out to Doha for their upcoming break together he didn't demand me for money it was just me feeling bad that he wouldn't have anything to eat or anything to support himself [Music] in the end Olivia sent Gary a total of 3 370 pounds and while deep down she wondered if she was being taken for a ride it was only when Gary canceled their holiday together in Doha that she finally understood her relationship wasn't real he made excuses he was broke after sending all that money I thought I've got to cut my losses I was more disappointed than heartbroken Keen to know exactly how she'd been tricked Olivia did some research and discovered that the bank account Gary had asked her to log into was in fact a fake website registered in the Ukraine next she sent some of his images to a facial recognition company who quickly found out the real identity of the man in the photograph she'd been given my heart sank the first photo of the real man he had children so I thought he's a married man and I found out that he was a public figure in Malaysia he was the first astronaut of Malaysia his name was Dr Sheikh Musa for almasri a simple Google search quickly turns up the astronauts photos making them easy pickings for a scammer looking to build a fake profile they can use to con someone like Olivia LinkedIn says fake accounts are a violation of its service and it takes appropriate action against them often blocking or removing them all together and though Gary ralston's profile has now been removed that's come too late to help Olivia it's not like breaking up with a real boyfriend is like breaking up from two people the one you were speaking to and the one in the photos Susan tickner thought she had found her soul mate when she connected with Dr Perry Powell through a dating website but it was money not marriage on his mind when he asked Susan to pay for a certificate to get some gold through customs and it wasn't long before he was asking for even more money this time to ship the gold home which he insisted had to be via Indonesia he said it was just routine and he sent me an email saying it was 800 and something to have it shipped in the meantime he was panicking he was texting me are you gonna send me this money then I got more suspicious and I changed my mind and I said no I think he'd been rumbled Perry changed tack he told Susan he was posting her 250 pounds in cash that she would then need to send on to one of his relatives in the United States but when she took this cash to her bank staff there refused the transfer the bank said you're definitely being scammed I went home I started trying to find out whether there was any truth in there every time I asked him a question he always avoided it by saying how much he cared about me and how how he would definitely be there for me and I kept calling him a scammer what did he say to that how could I not believe him after all we said to each other when Susan's family got wind of what was going on they insisted she report the whole business to the police and action fraud but despite losing nearly 1 400 pounds Susan holds out hope that Perry could still be the real deal despite your children saying to you Mum stop what was it that made you continue to talk to him no matter how many times I thought he was lying no matter how many times people told me I wanted to believe it was all true and so how do you feel about that person now whoever that person may be I feel maybe one day you'll turn up at my door half of me is thinking that the other half thinks how embarrassed I am how stupid I feel I don't think you're stupid how do you feel about us perhaps trying to find out who this person is I'd love to find out it was the person I actually fell in love with I'm going to give you a hug now oh thank you thank you to get answers for C eres I'm running a check on some of the photos Perry sent her we're going to crop them reverse them and search them and see where they lead us the reverse image search can be as simple as dragging and dropping a photo onto the search box on your internet browser this will then reveal a number of identical or related images giving you a far better idea of where the original picture came from and after a bit of digging it appears that the images Susan was sent can be traced back to a man whose name isn't Perry but Fred there's a Facebook profile for Fred and from what I can see this man lives in Holland he doesn't live in Israel he doesn't work for the UN he runs a company in Holland one of the first things I've noticed about Fred's Facebook page is that it's open I haven't added him as a friend but I can see all these pictures all the information about him this guy is a prime candidate to have his identity stolen having open settings on your Facebook account means anyone anywhere can log onto your page download your photographs and harvest any personal information you may have put there it's an absolute gold mine for scammers looking to build a convincing fake dating profile foreign it seems clear that Susan's scammer was using another man's Facebook profile pictures to con her out of almost 1 400 pounds but with it being so easy to create a fake person from real images I've come to meet Tech expert then soda grin than I do okay man to learn more about staying safe online what are the risks attached with open Facebook settings one of the biggest things that people might not realize is by being wonderfully generous with their settings and opening to everyone they're actually opening themselves to abuse and it's a little bit like a digital Green Cross code you've got to really think what would you do to make sure you're the safest possible roads are obviously great but they also are quite dangerous same principle here with Facebook the more information a con artists has on you the more elaborate the con can be it's not foolproof but changing your privacy settings so only friends and family can access your Facebook pictures and information will make it less likely that your photos could fall into the wrong hands of course once those images are out there there isn't much it can do and if you're one of the many people like Susan using a dating website it can be very tricky to know for sure that the picture you're looking at really is of the person they say they are how much of an issue is it having these fake profiles on these dating sites well I mean not just only on dating site this is been for all social media platforms because it's so easy to set up a profile that the barrier to entry is so low you can actually do it now with machines so the machines can actually start thousands of fake profiles all you need is an email address and a picture they could get off the internet so a fake accounts are Rife on the whole of the internet on dating sites they are almost a fundamental what do you mean by that one of the best ways of getting people into a restaurant is to show that your restaurant's really full so you put people on the front so people can see them but actually the restaurant the rest of the restaurants empty same principle with a dating thing you don't want to turn it to a dating site where there's no one there because that wouldn't be a great experience for you but you turn up and you interact with well I'd expect real people yeah but would you know how would you know so you'd have to check check again but some people aren't prepared to check online dating Association that represents the big players insists that fake profiles are largely a thing of the past however it's been estimated that up to 20 of all profiles online could still be fake and that can have a huge cost for anyone who like Susan is scammed as a result it's often impossible to recover the money they've lost but forensic fraud investigator Richard Emery believes the bank should be doing more to help victims get their money back Richard hello hello pleased to meet you the banking industry categorizes romance scams Under the Umbrella of what it calls authorized payment fraud so what we mean by an authorized payment fraud is that the victim of the fraud authorizes the payment from their bank account they believe that they are making a genuine payment But ultimately the payment goes to a fraudster if we just want to put some numbers on it for romance scam last year on average a victim would make 5.4 payments to the fraudster so the average value of the transaction a romance scam victim pays to the fraudster is less than two thousand pounds okay so once the payee has been created multiple payments to the same payee are quite difficult to detect the fact to here is that when we set up a new payment Banks only check the account number and sort code not the name of the person the money is going to so in a romance scam if the fraudster says my name is Sergeant John Smith and you create an account in the name of Sergeant John Smith sort code an account number but actually he is somebody completely different because the bank doesn't allow you to validate the payee name you end up paying money to an account which is entirely unintended so why do you think the bank doesn't do that well that's actually a very very big question because in my opinion the banks should have been doing it since they became aware six years ago they became aware of the risk finally change UK Finance which represents the banks says confirmation of payee is set to be rolled out sometime in 2020 of course that's little benefit to Susan but while the information I found out won't help her get her money back it will give her the truth about so-called Dr Perry Powell shortly Kim and I will be revealing to her everything we've discovered as we've seen with some basic tricks and Technical know-how fraudsters can quickly pounce on unsuspecting victims before disappearing into the night with their money so often in Romance scams like these the victim never actually meets the person they've fallen in love with but Dave Hazel was different he met someone in person not just online he could never have imagined though that he would find himself exploited at the hands of an unscrupulous scammer [Music] if love is a dance then Dave Hazel has certainly had his fair share of misplaced steps [Music] pull him down saying I've been doing for about seven eight years and I love it but it was on a trip to London with friends that Dave met a woman who he appeared to be completely in sync with we arranged to meet up the next day for a coffee and we had a good time and then I had to leave so I said good you know it's been nice meeting you and hopefully we'll keep in touch [Music] Linda Smith was a Canadian tourist who soon returned home and the two quickly lost contact back in Norfolk and eager to find a partner Dave decided to sign up to a popular dating website so I went on to the online dating because some friends they'd met Partners off of them and they said why don't I try it and to his Delight Dave came across a profile that looked like it belonged to the Linda he'd met in London I saw a picture and I saw her name Linda Smith and I thought that is a coincidence it's you know I'll want to see if I can if it is the right one the woman replied saying she was the same Linda Smith from Canada that Dave had been so taken with I was really excited and happy and I thought yes she's single and I'm single hopefully we can try and rebuild what we had in that weekend over the next six weeks the two constantly messaged each other and it wasn't long before Linda was suggesting she moved to Norfolk and live with him I was really really happy I was out of this world no one else existed that's how I thought of her and she was saying the same but a few weeks after they first got back in contact Linda sent Dave an email asking for a hundred pounds to help pay a medical bill for a member of her family she had family problems that's why she asked me to if I could help her out I said yes okay of Linda's story didn't seem to add up the bank account she asked for the hundred pounds to be sent to wasn't in Canada as he expected but Ghana I've emailed her back and said well you're in Canada right yeah and she replied to that email and said no I'm with family in Ghana but I'm going to be going back to Canada once I've got things sorted out with the family so I sent a hundred pound so and she emailed me back and said thank you very much but over the next few months the requests for money to help pay her family's medical bills in Ghana kept coming with little cash to spare Dave maxed out his credit cards and even took out a five thousand pound loan Linda promised to repay the money once she came to Norfolk to live with him and asked for Dave to cover the cost of her flight to the UK all I was concerned with was getting Linda over to me and settling down having a happy family life I kept on sending her money I was really struggling to survive but at the end of the day it'd be worth it when she finally got here by now Dave was 8 000 pounds out of pocket but could at least look forward to Linda's imminent arrival having booked the week off work to spend it with her the night before she was due to arrive he received a troubling call Linda said she'd been detained by immigration in Ghana for not having the right paperwork I was virtually in tears because she was crying and we were miles away miles apart and I couldn't do anything to come for her Linda told him she needed three thousand pounds to pay off the officials and fly to the UK but she only had 500 pounds of her own money so I've rallied round and got another loan to pay for it I sent her 2 500. by now Dave had shelled out nearly 15 000 pounds but the following day Linda still hadn't been released she told Dave that he'd now need to hire a solicitor in Ghana which would cost a further fifteen hundred pounds Dave refused prompting a man who said he was Linda's Dad to call pleading for him to send the money he was begging me and he said that you know she really loved me and she really wanted to be with me so if you want if you're the same if your feelings are the same you'd want her you'd want to help her out as much as you could had no choice but to help selling off some of his possessions to raise the 1500 pounds but he couldn't escape the nagging feeling he was being scammed something that was soon confirmed when he went to transfer the money at his local bank when I was in the queue at the bank the lady saw me up really upset and she said what's the problem I said I've been silly I think I've lost I've lost a lot of money so she had a look and on the immigration paperwork she she noticed one small little misprint and her advice to me was go down the police station and report it as forward not only did Dave now have that his dream woman was a scam and almost certainly not the woman he'd met in person originally but he was now nearly 15 000 pounds out of pocket and in debt I was really upset my heart it just dropped out of my body I just felt like getting in the car driving to the end of the road and ending me life Sarah hilley from the charity victim support helped Dave come to terms with what had happened when we first met you're a very different person than you are today you were struggling quite a bit weren't you yeah but if you hadn't been there I wouldn't be here telling everybody my experience we should be very proud of yourself thank you very much Sarah I am Sarah helped Dave understand that he was one of many people to be taken in by this kind of scam over 4 500 reported cases in 2018 alone Dave's story and the way that the crime has affected him is quite a common one lots of people feel that they're the only person that's been through something like this they feel embarrassed they don't want to talk to people about it because they think that people are going to think they're foolish but as the time's gone on his confidence has improved he's getting out and about he's living his life and he's looking forward to the future thanks to the support he's received from Sarah Dave is now back on his feet and strutting his stuff and while his experience has put him off online dating for good he's still hopeful that in the future he'll find the right partner to tango with I've been through the really bad times and now I'm looking to enjoy myself I'm looking to get settled down with somebody we've been looking into the case of Susan tickner before we begin our investigation she was hopeful Dr Perry Powell was genuine wow but the case against him is comprehensive and now it's time to see how Susan will react to everything we've discovered first of all I've got a couple of these documents with an Israeli custom stamp now if you look closely that stamp will say Israel customs and preventative Services right now the Israeli Customs Department isn't called that it's called Israel Customs Administration okay I wouldn't know that no because he's used that name we know that this is a fake document okay although You've Got Deep suspicions in the back of your mind sometimes you you seem to wipe them out you don't really want to believe it should I move on yes please do you remember this picture yes I do I sent him two of my books in a package for his birthday and I asked him for proof I needed proof because he was still asking me for more money and I said before I send any more money I need proof so I need a picture of you standing somewhere holding one of my books and he sent me this well the head has been photoshopped yeah and the book's been photoshopped on right I feel quite sad about it all I feel stupid I feel like I've really made an idiom myself you're not stupid this is someone who is extremely cunning they've gone to extreme lengths that would lead most people the wrong way we've found out that he has been relying on images from a man called Fred who lives in Holland he is married with Children so these innocent people they don't know their identities being used no which is all fine isn't it really how do you feel about what you found out I just feel relieved actually I feel I'm quite a strong person I'm one of those kind of people who just move on dust it off and get on with my life I've had worse things in my life but I'm I'm not making a joke that I feel angry at least Susan is now under No Illusion that everything Perry told her was a lie all that's left to do now is for Kim to give him a call and a piece of her mind oh hello hi Perry how are you I'm okay I'm just wondering I said on my message I'm just a little bit confused you shouldn't be confused baby are you gonna come over am I going to meet up with you you do want to see me okay also I still be reading your books you still reading my books are you I'm so glad about that yeah I really I will love you you tell that I don't know what came over you you started turning your back at me at a time well listen I I need to tell you that I'm not actually Susan and my name is Kim Marsh and you're being recorded to broadcast on the BBC and we believe Perry Powell is a fake identity that you've created as part of a scam using photographs which you found online we believe you've taken around 1400 pounds from Susan what'd you say to that Perry oh it's lies well I don't think it is lies Perry if in fact your name is Perry I don't think it's lies at all okay you you still denying it wow what a piece of work I so not so you see the manipulation I love you yeah and then he went on to guilt trip you Susan I'm sorry that we've had to present this information for you um do you think it's giving you the closure that you need even when I walked in here today I'm still thinking they're gonna say oh you weren't scammed it was it was real you know it in your case because you just want it to be right for you and um it was just not real thank you Susan it's been lovely to me [Music] oh the man of her dreams turned out to be an invention by scammers Susan can now draw a line under the whole sorry Saga although I'm quite shocked he sounded totally different person than I had built up a picture of in my mind so I just feel he's out in my life now and well I'm pleased in a similar way or have been asked to send money to someone you're talking to online then we'd like to hear from you email us at loveormoney bbc.co.uk [Music] foreign [Music] genuinely wasn't sure whether Perry existed or not but today she finally got her answer he was a total fake and while Susan won't get her money back she is now armed with the right information to make sure this doesn't happen to her again yep and that goes for the rest of us too think twice before handing over money to someone you've met online even if you believe their story checks out because you can never be sure whether those who are asking for it even For Love or Money coming up an elaborate con involving a Nigerian politician and even the FBI how a scammers Web of Lies cost this woman 25 000 pounds and her home I really am I really am no one should have to go through what I'm through why this woman was determined to fight back against the fraudsters after they left her life in tatters I couldn't face my family or anybody and Kim's Showdown with a scammer not happy at being caught out I know exactly what I'm saying [Music] so Kim we've been contacted by a lady called coldeep now she believes that she's not been scammed once but twice all right let's have a look then I met Kieran through a dating site started emailing each other at first and then we did Exchange phone numbers Karen's profile sounded really good and it said no lies and honesty and he looked genuine from his photo Kieran asked for many um around uh 10 to 15 times I just got into such a mess I just went downhill second time around I believe I was a Target I didn't see it coming you know it's in front of me I should have seen it but maybe because I was still vulnerable um I was still blinded by everything closure that's what I want just one closure with potentially more than one scam to unravel coldeep's case is complicated and I've got a lot to investigate I'm going to meet coldeep to try to put a stop to the scammers trail of Deceit in 2013 recently divorced kuldeep was considering moving to New York where she hoped she might find a partner she joined a dating website and was contacted by a man who claimed to be a new york-based government consultant called Kieran this person said hello my name is Kieran he said that he's looking for a marriage and a steady life so um we started communicating okay so you liked his profile you liked the way he looks yeah he's quite tall dark hair he likes Bollywood he just like to travel and you thought I like this guy so there's no reason for you to think that you might be meeting somebody who wasn't genuine he seemed genuine [Music] kuldeep already had a long-standing arrangement to visit America to see family so she planned to meet Kieran while she was over there but when she got to the U.S he told her he was out of the country on business and wasn't sure when he'd be back though disappointed kaldeep continued messaging him and it wasn't long before out of the blue he told her his passport had been stolen and he needed to borrow some money and how much did he ask you for 500 pounds right okay because he said that passports were quite expensive right okay and so at that point how long had you been speaking by this oh God it was not even a month was there an explanation he said um he has no one he's he's stuck and he was like it felt like he was begging me or pushing me okay so he was a situation where I couldn't say no kuldeep sent 500 pounds using MoneyGram to transfer into his account and thought that would be the end of it but just Days Later Kieran messaged her again to say he was in hospital and didn't have enough money to pay for his medical costs I reply back because having you got anyone else you conducts and it goes no I said will I get it back and you go yes when we meet I will give it you back and then I just fell into the front again I just fell gave him um another 500 pounds okay so in total now that's a thousand pounds he's had of your money yeah which I'm assuming you can't really afford to be giving away to people no I was living in the flat I got behind my rent and credit cards and then loans okay was there anything in your head that when something's not right at this point or did you just still think that you were just helping him out just a tiny little bit with me that was saying you know something's not right not a hundred percent it was just just like a little bit of me hmm and I tended to follow my heartfelt and not my brain yeah as do a lot of us by now kuldeep had returned to the UK but kieran's requests for cash kept coming foreign how much in total did you send him all together I think about ten thousand pounds there was a point where I said that I've got no more money to spare um I'm in trouble myself so at that point you said no more money that's it yeah and then he stopped making contact with you just felt like vanished and it's like no because I attempted to email him but nothing came back I don't have a lot to work with but I'm Keen to find out what I can about Kieran coldeep scammer coldeep only had one photo of her scammer Kieran so what I'm going to do is reverse image search that to see what comes up by uploading kieran's picture into an online search engine I can see where else this Photograph has been used on the internet wow so just a series of dating websites that picture is attached to one profile of a man called Chris on another William Johnson 60 years old one of the websites that this photo comes up on is a scammer's warning website actually um and it also suggests that the picture belongs to a man called Diego so not Kieran when the man she'd handed over almost 10 000 pounds to stopped responding to her you'd hope that the worst of cool Deep's troubles were behind her but a month later she received an email which at the time she believed had been sent by the FBI it informed her that Kieran had been arrested for scamming women like her and there was even a way she could get her money back plus more as long as she paid out a lump sum first so after things have calmed down I get a scammed email claiming that they're from the FBI and they've captured and they said they captured Kieran okay custody now these people again I fell full of traffic because they said could I help her why by sending this and we'll send you a parcel Federal Express and it just kept going on and I said there's nothing come for me yet it'll be there it'll be there and I sent I think it was five thousand pounds five thousand pounds and what what were they telling you they were going to send you information all the funds that um all the money that I'd sent um to Kieran so you thought you were going to get them back yeah so at some point you sat there and went I've been scammed again yeah I did because this person kept ringing me and emailing me and I'm still getting calls from that person by now kuldeep's financial situation had deteriorated so badly she could no longer afford to pay rent and had little choice but to move back into her parents house after all this has happened and you're sitting there thinking I've been scanned out of all this money from this person and now you've found yourself back at home with your parents and having lost all of that money you must have been absolutely devastated at that point I was devastated ill um I wasn't 18 years to declare bankruptcy through this credit ratings went down how do you feel about the people or the person that has done this to you I really am I really hate him no one should have to go through what I went through no and presumably I mean I know I'm not the first but yes so this that's been you're not the first you won't be the last we're gonna do our very best to find out who this person is or people are or at least where they are where it's come from well I'm sort of like frightened of they put a profile picture up of themselves and is it really that person or is it another person acting I just wanted um whoever it is well we'll do our best [Music] cold deep stories really upset me you know this is a lady who's been left vulnerable who has been made bankrupt who has lost lots of money and it's not even just about losing money the loss of the money is the tip of the iceberg it's completely ruined that woman's life and it is not okay for scammers to be getting away with it it's just not okay kaldi been targeted twice by scammers the second of whom appeared to know the first was a fraud is unusual but not unheard of I've come to see inspector Paul Carroll from the national fraud intelligence Bureau to find out more Paul in one of our cases they were scammed and then someone got in touch with them asking to help them get their money back leading them to be scammed for even more money What's Happening Here we call that fraud recovery where as she details of victims can on occasions be shared within the criminal community and previous victims would be contacted with Promises of retrieving their money it might be through an investment scam you know if you if you invest your money in this commodity and we promise you huge Returns on your investment just to salvage so some of the money they've lost previously do scammers have lists of targets where communities of scammers sell on information to access easy targets um absolutely we're aware that this happens we're aware that um fraudsters um once saved deforded individuals may well pass on their details as vulnerable targets for for other criminals it's just crazy isn't it's like a Scamp on a scam yeah absolutely and that's what forces through they're constantly looking for new ways in which they can approach their victims and ways in which they can create these realistic scenarios where the victim thinks you know I can I can get some get some money out of this you know I can I can retrieve some of the funds I've previously lost the methods applied by fraudsters some some are very clever that the techniques they use um the messaging they use that is well thought out this isn't the first time they've done it and they've probably tried it before and failed right and they've developed their their techniques how big of an issue is romance fraud in the UK at present reporting we saw possibly a 27 increase compared to the previous year we're acutely aware though that actually some people choose not to report it may be that they're embarrassed by reporting we we really do urge people if you have been a victim or feel you are currently everything please please uh report to action fraud figures Paul's told me suggest the scale of these frauds is increasing all the time but the stories becoming ever more elaborate and intricately plotted the complicated twists and turns of a romance scam can sometimes feel straight from a Hollywood movie well that was definitely the case for one of them we've spoken to after what happened to her she was determined to rewrite the script and give her story the ending it deserved by tracking down those responsible I'm on my way to meet retired hairdresser Marion whose extraordinary story began after she split up with her husband who she'd lived with in France and returned to the UK I came back to my apartment in Bournemouth I was there with my youngest daughter who decided that I shouldn't be wasting my life now that perhaps I should try the dating sites so that's what I did Marion signed up to a popular dating website and it wasn't long before she got a message from a man who said he was a newly divorced U.S army colonel called Freddie Stark so he made contact with you in the first place yes I wasn't too sure about this I'd never been on dating sites before so I didn't rush straight away and then I asked him about himself to tell me all about his life which very quickly came back then he decided that he would rather chat on instant messenger than the actual dating site would be easier for us too have proper conversation after overcoming her initial reticence the couple began chatting on a daily basis Freddie told her he was busy on operations in Iraq but that his mind was also on his upcoming retirement [Music] they all looked so genuine yeah Marion soon felt swept up in the attentions of her Newfound man but being new to online dating part of her remained suspicious that Freddie wasn't really who he said he was so she began to ask him more and more questions in a bid to try and catch him out but every time Freddie seemed to have the answers I even fired questions about his uniform because I'd really done my homework it'd be things like um which way is your Eagle facing on your jacket because I knew for the different kernels his face is a different way and he'd answer me straight away so there was nothing yeah he couldn't answer reassured he was a man she could trust Marion continued her conversations with Freddie and it wasn't long before he began talking about her moving to the USA to live with him permanently by now Freddie said he'd been posted to Ghana from Iraq as he prepared to return to the United States so it was from there that he concocted a plan for Marion to help him buy out his ex-wife's half of his home in America he suggested that if Marion sold her home she'd raise enough money to buy his ex-wife share of the house and when he returned home they could be together and he made the property sound irresistible every detail of that home he gave me I'd ask everything what color the cabinets were in the kitchen how many rooms this are everything shape of it how it's on the plot so that's where you're at that's where your money came into place so correct me if I'm wrong you had been manipulated into almost offering that money that's how it sounded to me is it yes I think that's right to say that because this of asking direct never happened it was more manipulated you know many times I might say oh well you know maybe I should help you out or something and then of course there's the promise of you buying out the ex-wife yes which was the big it was the big thing big thing for you yeah and again quite a plausible thing Freddie suggested Marion send him the money to buy out his ex-wife via his solicitor who was also in Ghana they sent me a letter from the barristers Chambers on scales of Justice paper requesting the one hundred thousand dollars for property I had it all there yeah everything and that was a hundred thousand dollars yes it is a lot of money that I should have been enjoying my old age with so I made a transfer to Freddie Stark's lawyer of one hundred thousand dollars very clever how they did it but this was my money Marion was totally caught up in the excitement of planning her new life with Freddie in the US so I applied for my Visa on that name and address and I got the American visa I bought my flights I packed my home up everything but at that point Freddy went strangely silent sadly no phone calls and that was most unusual so you know it was funny no phone calls no nothing no waking me up nothing so now yeah my whole world has caved in I'm sitting there looking at all my home packed up my air flight ticket in my hand my money's gone I was ringing every police station in the area all they kept saying to me she'd been scammed you've been scammed and I just couldn't believe that I couldn't believe it clearly you were devastated oh the end of the world had come it was the last straw [Music] I couldn't face my family or anybody [Music] and then I spoke with a friend in Cornwall she was pleading pack your clothes and drive here straight away just drive but I did she took care of me for over two weeks [Music] what seems to have happened in this case is that they haven't actually directly asked her for money but more manipulated her into investing money into what she thought was going to be a future foreign are both very different and yet in each case the scammer used similar techniques to find a way to tap into and exploit their vulnerabilities hi there hi hi nice to meet you nice to meet you so I've come to meet psychologist lahani Noor to learn a little more about why someone might be susceptible to being scammed so what are the main kind of personality traits in victims of of romance fraud would you say I would say the person who becomes a veteran is likely to have what we would call a please others driver it's really important for them to please other people and it's very hard for them to assert themselves or to ask for what they want and the develops and strategies and the strategies are to be really pleasing and to do as they're told and be good in the hope that they'll eventually get that love Yeah but of course what they attract more often than not is people who see them vulnerability and completely manipulate it so when scammers are looking to scam victims yeah what are the kind of personality traits are they going to be preying on so they're looking for somebody that they can push against and that won't respond back or will respond um according to what they want so we'll give them what they want so I might say to you something like um oh Kim I really like necklace can I borrow it and you might say uh yeah sure and I might then take it off you if you had a poor boundary if you had a strong boundary you might say yes I like it too it's mine so it's that kind of pushing against someone to see whether or not they're going to give you what you want to and I suppose they would get to know that in those initial conversations with someone so obviously you don't know who the person is you're talking to when you start talking to someone they must get a sense of that vulnerability or a sense of that just from having normal conversation back and forth just in the dialogue so in the dialogue alone given the figures I heard from the police it's clear that these very clever very calculated conversations are happening every day and with at least 50 million pounds estimated to have been lost to fraudsters in this kind of scam in 2018 alone I want to know what more can be done to stop people from losing out I've come to talk to Katie Warwick from UK Finance the trade Association of the UK banking industry to learn about what banks can do to protect victims of romance fraud are there additional protection measures that Banks could put in place to help victims customers who are being scammed so with this type of scam it is quite difficult but one of the things that's been introduced recently is a voluntary Code Practice around all these things which are called authorized push payments in other words where are customers making a payment themselves and that introduces a set of Standards if you like which says how the banks should behave and what we are looking for customers to do in order to try and decide who's liable in the case if you like and that sort of raised the bar in terms of the standards expected of banks but also it makes sure that customers also understand that they've got something to do in this and they should be looking out for um for scammers in this in in these types of scams for people that the banks the authorities would consider vulnerable should there be extra protective measures for them all these cases need to be treated on a case-by-case basis so you can't have a particular saying this means vulnerability that doesn't um so if a victim comes to the bank they will look at it facts of the case ask questions and and aside from that whether the victim is vulnerable or not and of course if they are they will get their money back and that relationship between individual and institution does that change when the factor of vulnerability comes into play well yes it does is there more of a burden on the banks in that sort of case yeah they if they believe the customer is vulnerable and the circumstances of the case will tell them that then they will deal with it in a particular way which means that the customer will be dealt with more leniently clearly and will get their money back if they are vulnerable we've been looking into the case of kuldeep who after being scammed was then contacted by a man claiming to be from the FBI promising he could help and what were they telling you they were going to send you information all the money that I'd sent um to Karen coldeep was told she'd need to send a fee to recover her cash but after paying it the money never materialized and she was asked for more coldeep's given me the number of the person who claimed he'd get her money back he said his name was sadhu so I'm going to call and pretend to be her to see what's happened to her money oh hi there it's it's cool deep here okay okay no problem hello hi I I just need some help I need I'm just wondering how have you got my money you have oh I'm just I'm just really confused I'm not I'm not really sure what it is that I need to do now 250 pounds sorry I know you said I I was just confused because I'm not sure where I need to send that to you okay why why am I sending it there sorry why am I sending it to the United States okay so is my money is my money in the United States or is it somewhere else so if she's definitely going to give you that money though isn't she because I don't want this to happen again yes right send me those details again then I'll go straight there and do it is that okay okay thank you for your help you're welcome bye wow wow wow wow yeah that's definitely legit once off the phone the scammer sent through the bank details for me to send him the 250 pounds and also promised to send some photos and ID to convince me he was genuine and sure enough there it is so I handed the pictures straight over to Ashley to see what he could find out so Kim spoke to this person and they asked for 250 quid to help coldip get her money back we asked for some pictures and we've got some now so I'm going to take a look and see what I find these are all the pictures that have been sent to cold it this person came to work for the FBI wow I don't suspect a lot of FBI officials wear this sort of attire when they're at work this man claims to be called sadhu bakani so what I want to see is if that name comes up when we see the origin of this picture and who it belongs to again I'm reverse image searching the pictures sent through to Kim to see where else they've been used online it's so totally different name has come up the name dinu Malay if something is not right here next I search the name associated with the pictures to see what I can find and it's clear the photos we've been sent aren't just of some random guy the new Malay is a Nigerian politician Senator he's a member of a Nigerian political party he does not work for the FBI and obviously he's not called sadhu bakani do you know what this is so blatant what he's done is that he has taken the identity of a Nigerian Statesman and they have done a very cursory quick simple Google search to take the top images of this person to create a fake persona this is astonishing it's clearly another fake identity and whoever's really sending these pictures is still trying to extract money from coldeep in an elaborate scam the fraud that sucks in Marion was equally sophisticated using a mix of technology and psychology to convince her she'd soon be starting a new life abroad as we've seen Marion's scam was incredibly complex but she was determined not to give up and took the extreme step of traveling to Ghana so she could see Justice served to the scammers I thought I'm not going to let these people take my life or have to live with this like a cancer so I then decided I'm going to fight back after doing some of her own investigative work Marion flew to the location she sent the hundred thousand dollars Ghana a country where many of the scams we've investigated have originated sort out the office of the then attorney general Betty mold idrisu I spoke to Betty and Garner via video call to discuss Marion's extraordinary case hi Betty hi thanks for talking to us that's fine so first of all Betty what do you remember of Marion's case it was unusual see a victim coming into the country to seek for justice okay um it was an unusual for her to even have the courage to come to the office of the highest Minister responsible in Ghana and she was lucky because I had been working with Scotland Yard in the UK in my former capacity as legal advisor to the Commonwealth so we had done work on issues of cyber crime so she told her how told me the story it was absolutely shocking and I called in the police they were very eager to assist to get to the bottom of this police in Ghana were able to track down five people associated with Marion's case but Ghana remains a hot spot for romance scams and Betty is Keen to keep fighting against the scammers what is it that makes so many people in your country do this [Music] that it's a criminal offense they really look at you blankly when you tell them you're not allowed to do that you can go to prison it's a second degree felony okay okay so what tools have you developed how have things changed since Marion's case that easily anymore you can't open bank accounts that easy I think that's a global phenomenon now also the police investigators have become very equipped and they're able to work with the UK and the other commonwealth countries and Nigeria itself there's a lot more of what we call Mutual legal assistance going on how many of you from a Ghanaian perspective but he just gives it a whole new dimension thank you so much [Music] the courts Marion hasn't had any of her money back but she's at least pleased that the people responsible for scamming her have been brought to Justice I couldn't let these people take my life I had to go and find them over the next months I sat in the Supreme high court in Ghana and fought those five cases and who are both guilty and they were sent to prison [Music] whilst Marion scam traced back to Ghana we suspect coldly may have been gone by someone located in Nigeria based on the information we found so far the pictures supposedly of the agent helping her were actually those of a Nigerian senator who appears to have had his identity stolen by a man claiming to work for the FBI it's done twice that's horrible today coldeep has brought her friend Genevieve along for moral support as Kim and I revealed the truth behind both of the scams that targeted her Cody we have been working hard to find out as much information as possible now we have done our very best what I want to do is just talk you through what we know is that okay yeah first up revealing the true identity of the face cold deep fell for in the first place so-called Kieran we only have one photograph to work with and from reverse image of searching that picture we found his image on a lot of dating websites It's associated with different names different locations I have a few for you here there you go here's another one another name same picture the website suggests that this image actually belongs to a Colombian man called Diego oh gosh that makes sense sense yes that does and everything yes it's like this is an innocent man that has no clue that his photo is being used to how do people do this so his profile's been stolen yeah to scam people yeah to scam different people so you're not the only person that will have been scammed by that photo I feel sorry for the guy that this is picture spin stolen as well does it give you any sense of comfort knowing that I'm not the only you're not the only person this has happened to it does it makes me realize that he's those others that have been scanned by the same people done by the same thing and I'm not the only one I'm not the only one yeah next we're showing coldie what we've uncovered about the second scam the one that began with the email apparently from the FBI Cody we believe that your details have been sold into what's called a recovery scammer this is where someone says they can get your money back if you send their money here's the thing once you send them that money they keep asking that's so scary yeah you okay yeah go deep it's really important to say this is someone who is working with a group of people they're using technological trickery and all sorts of resources and tools to dupe well-meaning people like yourself there's a lot of sick people out there getting a lot of sick people who want to hurt innocent people like myself and they don't know what they're doing of course this particular scammer believes coal deep is still under his spell Kim called him up pretending to be you and the first thing they did was offer to get your money back if you paid more money if we sent them a further 250 pounds I then said Timo you know I'm not really sure how to do this what is it you am I definitely gonna get my money back and he was like yes send me the 250 pounds I'm very abrupt just kept telling me you send the money you send the money when are you going to send it when are you going to say very very abrupt that's not exactly like him yeah and we've got the proof he isn't who he said he was either we asked for a photo and ID to clarify that they were from the FBI because that's what they claimed this is what they sent us this certificate that's supposed to verify that they are trying to recover your money I mean how does that look to you first of all no proper um logo on it no email no policeman's name and address they also sent these pictures kuldeep you can see that the scammer lists his name as sadhu bakhoni now we looked up that name and it appears that this person is actually a Serial scammer they definitely do not work for the FBI and there is no way that they can get your money back we reverse image search these pictures and what we got was a Nigerian politician called Dino Malay this is the Senator's Twitter account so he's had his profile stolen as well when you look at the person's identity on Google Images you see the first top images of those pictures so it's not even been very clever about it has it no it seems like you know if he's just printed them off Google we may not know the scammers true identity but we still have his phone number time for Kim to call back and tell him we'll run to him I've been speaking to the person behind this fake identity sadhu bikani and today we're going to give him a call and ask for your money back I'm going to call him and I'm going to pretend to be you I'm going to try and find out who he really is I'm going to try and find out where your money's gone of course they may not be very forthcoming with that and they might just put down the phone but the point is we're going to try and find out what we can let's give him a call yep hello sadhu hello hi um I'm not sure about sending this money I'm a bit nervous I'm I'm a bit concerned that I'm not going to get my money back but will I really get my money back if I send it I have to tell you something I'm not actually coldy but coldeep's a friend of mine I have to tell you my name is actually Kim Marsh you're being recorded for broadcast on the BBC and we've been filming with Colby for the last few weeks we believe that sadhu bukhani is a fake identity that you've created as part of a scam I'm right aren't I oh I know I know I know exactly what I'm saying hello what is your real name I never we've looked that name up online and multiple scam websites sworn that that is a name [Music] the number that you've been calling us on has also been listed as a number that has been used to scam people what do you say to that tell us about the pictures of Dino melaye the Nigerian Senator and politician no it's not me it is not your picture it belongs to a Nigerian senator tell us where the money is this was a man who was extremely aggressive and frankly super intimidating yeah I could not I'm sorry I couldn't sleep I could I just was unable to sleep cold deep I would dread to think of you being on the phone to him alone at night time at your house this is the tactic that many of these scammers use to pray on vulnerable people and to use their influence to get money from vulnerable people like yourself excuse me when he said I'll haunt you down because I want my share of the money and I'll haunt you down I'll trace your phone I can trace where you are he absolutely won't he can't do that it's a trick that he's using to try and con you to get more money you block that number you never make contact with this person and what you need to remember is that this is someone in another country they don't know where you live you are safe okay okay I think it'd be worth you changing all your details change your number change your email address only give it to those people that really need it or that you really want to have it that you really know and trust and if you get any more phone calls from people you don't know or messages I just don't know just don't answer don't reply don't reply her call Deep really hope that that information has informed you and it will Empower you to make choices that are going to benefit you moving forward thank you Ashley thank you for looking into it Kim and you're welcome thank you you've been really Brave to know your story how I feel now is you know I just don't care anymore I feel I can breathe you know forget what's happened and it's a sense of relief that I'm not the only one [Music] if you think you 've damned in a similar way or have been asked to send money to someone you're talking to online then we'd like to hear from you email Love or Money at bbc.co.uk foreign [Music] scams like these are truly Global and it can feel like an enormous task to even begin finding out who's behind such devastating crimes despite being scammed multiple times I think cold deep can see not just how it all happened but also what to look out for in the future and if you're worried about who you might be talking to online hopefully you now know how to spot the crucial signs of whether someone's in it For Love or Money [Music] thank you

Channel: ENDEVR

Views: 140,827

Keywords: Free documentary, documentaries, full documentary, hd documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), romance scam, online dating, dating scam, online dating scam, online scam, online dating scams, dating site scams, catfish scam, romance scams, scam victim, romance scams documentary, romance scammer stories, romance scammers and online scams, online dating catfish scam, romance scam victims, romance scammer caught, dating scams s023, for love or money

Id: yB8QL8WQgFg

Length: 85min 57sec (5157 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 23 2023