Pat claims to have lost over £30,000 in an online romance scam, which caused her to worry about being evicted. On the BBC programme For Love or Money on Thursday, Kym Marsh and Ashley John-Baptiste tried show Pat the truth behind this scam in an effort to help her draw a line under this horrific chapter in her life.
In the search for love, Pat decided to sign up to an online dating site. It was there that she met a man who claimed to be called ‘Mark Anderson’.
Mark, who said he was 54, from Basingstoke, claimed to be an operations manager at Amazon, with a 17 year old son.
Two months into their relationship, Mark claimed he had a job offer in India and Pat told him to take it.
He told her that the jewellery was really cheap in India, and that he had bought her a ring for when he got back to the UK. However on the day he was supposed to fly home, he said he had ran into some difficulties in Dubai.
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He claimed he had been stopped by customs for transporting jewellery without the correct documentation and asked Pat to lend him £3,400 via his boss’s account to pay his fine, which she did.
But it didn’t end there. Pat claims she sent over another £10,000 to cover further customs and VAT charges on the jewellery.
Pat explained that she sent the money because she had no reason to doubt him at this point. He said he would pay her back and that he had the money in the…
