Victims have understandably been left in tears after scammers took their life savings with some vulnerable people losing huge sums of money. BBC’s For Love or Money viewers have watched Kym Marsh and Ashley John-Baptiste try and uncover the truth behind online romance fraud in an effort to help draw a line under this horrific chapter in people’s lives.
On today’s episode, Norman, a retired council manager, explained how he fell victim to the horrific scam.
After coming out of a long term relationship, the 67-year-old was looking for love and companionship, especially since the pandemic was so lonely for him.
Without much success locally, Norman joined an LGBTQ dating website. It wasn’t long until he welcomed a man – who used a fake alias ‘Michael Chambers’ – onto his social group on the site.
Michael told Norman he was a 28-year-old mature student living in Canada.
Their relationship started to develop as the two of them spoke more and eventually bloomed into something serious. Michael said he had plans of moving to the UK after his graduation so they could start their lives together.
READ MORE: Santander issues warning as woman lost over £8,000 in devastating scam – ‘I’m wiped out’
Suddenly, Michael claimed he was having financial problems with his university fees and convinced Norman to send him £1,000 to cover the amount left owed.
After seeing an invoice from what looked like the university, Norman felt more comfortable with sending Michael money and also…
