We all know at least one happy couple who fell in love after meeting online.
After watching her friends find their perfect match, Clara Pierce* was hopeful that she, too, would enjoy a serious relationship with her boyfriend Shawn, whom she met on TikTok last November.
Clara, 70, from Cheshire, admits she was initially skeptical when Shawn sent her a message out of the blue on the social media video app asking him to follow her, but once they started chatting via text, they couldn’t stop and they started sending messages several times. one day.
The only thing stopping them from meeting in person was that Shawn, a 55-year-old sergeant major in the U.S. Army, was stationed in Israel and wouldn’t return from his tour of duty to his home in Florida until May, he says.
Meanwhile, he needed help paying his phone bill so he could continue messaging, so she voluntarily sent him £1,534.99 in total. In exchange, Shawn surprised Clara with a silver necklace sent to her house, where she lives alone.
Romance Scam: Last month we warned about a rise in scammers posing as US military personnel deployed to the Middle East and then asking for money.
Although the couple had never spoken on the phone, Clara was planning to fly to Florida upon her return, when she said they could finally start their life together.
But when Clara read Money Mail on Valentine’s Day last month, she says a feeling of dread came over her.
Our report about a romance scammer who invented stories and identities to take advantage of women had alarming similarities to her own online relationship, she says.
We had warned about a rise in scammers posing as US military personnel deployed to the Middle East, then asking for money to pay for phone bills, uniforms or food, and typically requesting payments to be made via Bitcoin.
This matched Shawn’s backstory word for word. Clara, a retired pharmacy technician, couldn’t ignore the warning signs, so she reached out to Money Mail hoping we could calm her fears about Shawn.
She told us: “I started to think something wasn’t right, but I’m fond of him and he seems very genuine, so I hope everything turns out well.” I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship, but I desperately need to be sure. I would be very upset if he turned out to be a scammer.
‘Are there really many American soldiers stationed in Israel and patrolling against Hamas? Every time I ask Shawn or ask him, he makes me feel guilty, he convinces me and tells me he would never lie to me. I don’t know what to do.
“Maybe I’m being cynical, but it seems a little far-fetched for him to be there, and if he’s 55, he’s probably too old for active duty.”
Clara had been uncomfortable with the age Shawn had given, 55, when in his photographs he appeared closer to 35. The man’s 70-year-old daughter also expressed concern about Shawn’s legitimacy and asked him to be careful.
Clara’s own research found Shawn online and verified that his phone number was indeed a Florida number (which it was), but found no evidence of his age.
Money Mail agreed to team up with leading fraud experts from Nationwide, Clara’s building society, to investigate whether their relationship was fake and whether the money was funding criminals. The evidence we found was irrefutable.
Investigation: We discovered that photographs of Shawn that had been sent to Clara had been used by scammers to financially exploit other women and were appearing on scam warning websites.
We discovered that photographs of Shawn that had been sent to Clara had been used by scammers to financially exploit other women and were appearing on scam warning websites.
The house Shawn said he owned in Florida had also recently sold. During the three months of their relationship, Clara had sent £1,534.99 in five transactions to Shawn, several of which were made via Bitcoin.
She says: ‘He said he needed money to pay his phone bills, which were £250 each time.
‘He also doesn’t like the food in Israel and needed money to buy American food, which he said was expensive.
“Shawn told me that he couldn’t access his bank account and that he wouldn’t be able to get the money if I didn’t pay it with Bitcoin, so I had to learn how to do it.”
However, the third transfer to a cryptocurrency app did not go through, for reasons unknown to Nationwide and Clara.
She says Shawn then told her to send the money to Mr. Bohdan Samoniuk, who Shawn said could get the money to her.
Jim Winters, head of economic crime at Nationwide, says: “This case was a classic example of a romance scam and, reading the Daily Mail article, our client could see that there were many red flags in her own situation. If “Although it is worrying, we are pleased to have put an end to it as soon as possible.”
Clara blocked Shawn on all social media and said she won’t talk to him anymore. “I have been very fond of her, it is very annoying because she sent such nice messages. I live alone and when we started chatting I felt attracted,” she says.
Clara has now received a full refund from Nationwide for the money she transferred to the criminal posing as Shawn.
Most banks should refund you if you’ve transferred money to someone due to a scam, but may refuse refunds if you haven’t been “careful enough.”
This applies, for example, if you did not heed the warnings your bank gives you or if you did not inform your bank as soon as possible if you suspect you have been scammed.
Winters says: “Anyone can become a victim of a romance scam because criminals can be persuasive enough to get someone who is looking for love or feeling lonely to give them their trust, their personal details and, ultimately, their money. , even if they don’t know each other.”
Romance scams increased by a fifth last year, according to Lloyds Bank. An estimated £4.3m has already been lost to romance fraud this year, according to commercial banking body UK Finance.
Clara says: ‘I feel humiliated but I am very grateful to the Mail and Nationwide. Shawn the scammer is already eliminated, lesson learned!’
- Are you worried that you have been scammed? Get in touch: j.beard@dailymail.co.uk
*Names have been changed.
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