Romance fraud: more than £4m stolen in Sussex
Sussex Police urge people looking for love online to be vigilant
More than £4m was taken from people in Sussex who fell victim to so-called romance fraud last year.
People aged between 30 and 59 accounted for half of all cases across the county in 2021, Sussex Police said.
Victims are duped into sending money to criminals who go to great lengths to gain their trust.
Anna (not her real name) is a finance professional in her 50s who fell victim to a fraudster.
She believed she was in a genuine relationship with Andrew for more than two years when she realised she’d been the victim of a romance fraud after losing £350,000.
She joined the dating website Zoosk in February 2019 after four years of being single and met Andrew who told her that he was a Bulgarian food importer living in London.
Anna said: "I’d been recovering from an incredibly difficult, abusive marriage and I was finally ready to meet someone."
Some of the most common methods of communication with fraudsters is WhatsApp, Dating Sites and Facebook
"He showered me with love and affection. If you imagine a stick of candy floss, I was the stick and he was the sugar wrapped around me. I felt as though I was floating."
Around five weeks after their initial connection, Andrew asked Anna for some money to help him through a temporary business crisis.
The requests for further financial assistance became more frequent and even included a plea to cover repatriation costs in respect of his daughter who had died overseas.
Anna said that there were multiple occasions she voiced suspicions about these scenarios to Andrew, but that he made her question her own reality.
Anna added: "I’d be sucked back into his all-powerful love bubble. I was also getting receipts for many things, and he constantly had an explanation for me."
Anna and Andrew engaged in a video calls but she has since found out that via sophisticated trickery he had been using technology to superimpose a moving image.
When Andrew claimed to being held as a hostage in Paris and tortured by loan sharks, Anna put out a social media alert for help regarding his possible whereabouts.
It was at this point, she was then contacted by a lady in France responding to this appeal for information.
She advised Anna that the photo of Andrew actually related to a famous actor in South America and that Anna had been deceived by an online fraudster.
The majority of romance fraud cases reported in 2021 took place in West Sussex (56%).
Just under a third were reported in East Sussex (30%) and almost half of those were reported in Brighton and Hove (14%).
Bernadette Lawrie, financial abuse safeguarding officer for Sussex Police said: "With more and more people turning to online platforms to form relationships this cruel and heartless crime is on the rise.
"Fraudsters prey on the loneliness of victims, targeting and grooming them for the purpose of exploiting money.
"Since the pandemic we have seen increases in this fraud type because social interactions and connections have been reduced and criminals have used this as an opportunity to befriend people and strike up online relationships with those at their most vulnerable before defrauding them and stealing their money."
To report a scammer making contact with you or fraudulent material relating to romance fraud report it here.