Funding my ex's £35k hospital treatment almost left me homeless – a call from her kids' social worker changed everything
He knew full well that it would be his ex partner Marta Szymanska's
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James Marin was conned out of almost £35k by his ex Marta Szymanska
Credit: Bauer Media
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She fabricated photos of herself pretending to be in hospital claiming she needed him to cover medical expenses
Credit: Bauer Media
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James was also sent fabricated emails that assured him he would be reimbursed
Credit: Bauer Media
Having battled a chronic illness for months James was used to handing over money for her medical treatment and had been sacrificing his own bills to do so.
But what James didn't realise was that it was all part of a
'I feel ashamed and foolish to have fallen for her cruel and calculated
James met Szymanska after matching with her on a dating app and says that their connection was almost instant.
Read More on Real Lives
'I was quickly impressed by Marta,' he says.
'She had old-fashioned values, dressed elegantly and loved classic films; it didn't take us long to become an official.'
But despite their speedy start James admits that things fizzled out with Szymanska after he went travelling.
James, a chef from Northwich, Cheshire says: 'I missed Marta, however, and when I got back we decided to make a proper go of things.'
Most read in Fabulous
A few months later James asked Szymanska to move in and for the next two years the couple lived a happy existence.
But during lockdown, things started to deteriorate.
Shameless moment crook counts £30k in cash he swindled from vulnerable pensioners
'One night, I came home from a long shift to find Marta had been drinking,' James says.
'There were cans of cider littering the front room and she was sprawled on the sofa.
'I tried to confront her but couldn't get any sense out of her.
'I decided to go to my dad's. But when I got back, Marta was still drinking and the house was a mess.
'It was clear she had a problem, so I encouraged her to get help and got her a job where I worked.'
James says that after that Szymanska seemed to improve and normality resumed but it wasn't to last.
'Just a few weeks later she'd hit the bottle again,' James recalls.
'Whenever she was drunk, she would lash out verbally at me. I felt as if I was walking on eggshells.
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James claims that Szymanska developped a drinking problem during lockdown and he asked her to leave
Credit: Bauer Media
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Once out of his home she cooked up the plan to fleece him of his wages
Credit: Bauer Media
'I'd even bathe her as she'd stopped looking after herself. It was heartbreaking.
'She'd promise to stop drinking but I'd find bottles of booze hidden all around the house.
'I called the police and social workers, but nobody seemed to help.'
After a tense Christmas, James made the decision to end things with Szymanska.
'But she refused to leave,' he claims.
'My frustration got the better of me, and I pushed her outside. She fell and banged her knee and elbow.
'I felt terrible and ashamed. I'd never done anything like that before.
'I apologised, but Marta pressed charges.'
James pleaded guilty to common assault and asked to go on a Building Better Relationships course.
Meanwhile, Szymanska stayed in the house, while James moved in with his dad because she claimed she had nowhere else to go.
Three months later, she finally left but James says that when he came home his house was 'a complete mess.'
I was very concerned about her, but by then, I'd handed over £15k and had nothing left
James Andrews
'I never wanted to see Marta again, and tried to move on,' he says.
'Only, two months later, I got a call. It was Marta, and she seemed distressed.
'She told me she'd stopped drinking and had got a job but her boss had done a runner with her wages.
'I felt bad for her, and agreed to send £820 for living expenses which she promised to pay back.
'But as the weeks marched on she kept making excuses about why she hadn't paid me yet.
'Then, a month later, she told me she was in hospital after collapsing and had been sectioned. I knew she suffered from depression and was worried about her.'
Weeks passed, then one day James received a call from a man called Dr Jahavar Singh.
'He told me Marta was very ill and required lifesaving treatment,' he says.
'He explained she had encephalitis of the brain and had been placed in an induced coma.'
The doctor claimed that he'd paid out of his own pocket and asked James to cover the costs, to later be reimbursed by NHS England.
'I tried to tell him that it was not my problem and that Marta had family in Poland but the doctor told me I was listed as next of kin,' says James.
'After that, I was bombarded with calls every few days, asking for hundreds of pounds.
'I felt pressured to help her, but it left me struggling to pay my bills.'
A month later James received yet another call with Dr Singh telling him that Szymanska had deteriorated and needed further treatment and injections.
Days later, James says another one of Szymanska's doctors told him she had a 50% chance of survival.
'I was devastated and broke down in tears,' she says.
'I was very concerned about her, but by then, I'd handed over £15k and had nothing left.
'But a nurse called Eva told me I'd get the money back, telling me my ex's disability benefit and compensation were due.
'I also got various emails from Citizen's Advice and the NHS backing up Marta's claims about her illness, and giving complicated reasons for why my money hadn't been returned as promised.
'Marta also assured me I'd be reimbursed.'
But the financial strain meant that James wasn't sleeping as most of his wages were going towards Szymanska's treatment.
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Then weeks later, Szymanska was discharged from hospital.
'I was relieved she was better and assumed that would be an end to the demands for money,' James recalls.
But not long after, Szymanska called James in tears, claiming that she couldn't afford her medication and also needed money for vet bills and rent.
'She told me she had bailiffs at her door but I questioned her about her benefits and asked her if this was some sort of con,' James says.
'But she forwarded me emails from Citizen's Advice saying her finances were in a mess and they were working on getting money back from the bank.
'I had to resort to borrowing cash from friends, family and colleagues. It was humiliating.'
One day a concerned colleague took James aside.
'He told me it sounded dodgy and asked me whether I was sure this was the truth,' James says.
'But I had the emails to back it up.'
Meanwhile, letters from James' mortgage company warned him that he was at risk of losing his house if he didn't keep up repayments.
He says: 'I was out of my mind with stress, but I believed I was doing the right thing by helping Marta.'
But almost two years later, James still hadn't received a penny back and things came to a head one night at a train station.
'A dark thought ran through my head,' he admits.
The idea of opening up to anyone terrifies me and I fear I may never recover financially or mentally
James Andrews
'But the faces of my loved ones filled my mind, and I stepped away from the edge.'
Months later, James received a call from a social worker because she mistakenly thought he was the father of one of Szymanska's children.
And what she told him sent him reeling.
'She said that Marta was physically well and didn't have any medical conditions,' James says.
'I was in shock. She'd spun a cunning web of lies to convince me she was seriously ill.
'I realised the doctor, nurse and the official-looking emails were all fake.
'She'd taken advantage of my kindness and scammed me out of £34,234.
'I couldn't breathe.'
The social worker encouraged James to phone the police. After filing his report James' phone, bank statements and the file of fake emails were taken away.
It was a complex investigation, but a year later, Szymanska was charged with 10 counts of fraud by false representation.
Days before she was due to stand trial, Marta Szymanska, 43, pleaded guilty at Chester Crown Court.
'Part of me was relieved, but another felt I'd been cheated, as she wouldn't have to explain herself,' James says
'I went to court to see her sentenced, but felt let down when she received a 20-month suspended sentence after probation officers said she'd had a difficult childhood.'
Sentencing, Judge Steven Everett told her, 'You conned Mr Andrews in a particularly sophisticated and cruel way, pretending that you were ill and pretending that there were difficulties.'
James adds: 'I had no reason not to believe her.
'The idea of opening up to anyone terrifies me and I fear I may never recover financially or mentally.'
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While James is relieved he worries about opening up to anyone going forward
Credit: Bauer Media
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Sunday World
19 minutes ago
- Sunday World
Village comes to standstill to honour mother and children who died in suspected triple murder-suicide
Vanessa Whyte (45) and her two children, James (14) and Sara (13), had been planning to spend a short break in her native Barefield over August bank holiday Hundreds gather at Clare church ahead of funerals of mum and kids killed in Fermanagh shooting It was a homecoming forged from heartbreak for a proud Clare community. Vanessa Whyte (45) and her two children, James (14) and Sara (13), had been planning to spend a short break in her native Barefield over the August bank holiday weekend from their Fermanagh home. Instead, the mother's coffin was flanked by those of her two children in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in the small village just 6km from Ennis. The village has been left numb with shock by the scale of the tragedy that has struck a well-respected local family. Ms Whyte and her two children died from gunshot wounds inflicted at their Maguiresbridge home in Fermanagh on July 23. The man suspected of the triple shooting, Ian Rutledge (43), was discovered by PSNI officers at the property with gunshot injuries. He died in hospital on Monday. The PSNI believes Mr Rutledge, who was Vanessa's husband and the father of James and Sara, shot his family. Ms Whyte is survived by her mother, Mary, and her siblings, Geraldine, Regina, Anita, Ivor and Stephen. All poignantly followed the three coffins as they were carried on the shoulders of family, friends and GAA clubmates into the Barefield church at 2.15pm today. The village came to a standstill as the cortege wound its way from the Whyte home to the village church, with hundreds lining the main street as a mark of respect. Mourners gathered outside the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Barefield in Co Clare this afternoon. Photo: Eamon Ward The church that had hosted Ms Whyte's first holy communion and confirmation will today stage her requiem mass and those of the son and daughter she adored. Yesterday evening was the opportunity for locals, neighbours, friends, former classmates and GAA clubmates to try to console the inconsolable. Outside the church, a lengthy queue of mourners wound across the churchyard, down to the gate and out past the manicured roadside verges and flowerbeds of the picturesque village. Many mourners wore the saffron and blue of Ms Whyte's beloved Clare The three flagpoles outside the church flew the colours of the Republic, Clare and St Joseph's Doora-Barefield at half-mast. All three hearses parked in parallel on the main street outside the church – with floral tributes all in either Clare or Barefield colours. Hundreds of mourners wore bright colours to honour the family's request for a special visual tribute to Ms Whyte and her children. News in 90 Seconds - Saturday, August 2 Local shops and houses put flowers in their windows as a mark of respect. Many mourners wore the saffron and blue of Ms Whyte's beloved Clare. He coffin was covered by the maroon and white colours of the local St Joseph's Doora-Barefield GAA club with which her family is so entwined. Ms Whyte wore the same colours as a child in juvenile competitions while her late father, Joe, was a lifelong GAA player and fan. He was intensely proud of the fact he was a member of the very first St Joseph's Doora-Barefield panel to win the Clare senior hurling crown 71 years ago Two of Ms Whyte's brothers, Stephen and Ivor, played for Doora-Barefield and members of the Whyte family would attend virtually every match, both juvenile and senior, played by the club. The remains of Vanessa Whyte, draped in a Doora/Barefield flag, and her children James and Sara are carried to the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Barefield, Co Clare. Photo: Eamon Ward Ivor is now based in Australia but flew home immediately after he heard of the tragic death of his sister, nephew and niece. The GAA club will provide a guard of honour for the funeral – and officials assisted with stewarding as locals rallied to show solidarity with the Whyte family. In the queue, grown men – probably fearless on the hurling pitch – fought in vain to hold back tears as they sympathised with Ms Whyte's devastated family. The three coffins were brought into the church with symbols of the three young lives – ranging from a family photo to hurleys, GAA jerseys and a bag of balloons in the colours of Ms Whyte's beloved Clare. Ennis parish priest Fr Tom Ryan welcomed the remains into Barefield church. Today's requiem mass will be led by the Bishop of Ferns and former Killaloe priest, Gerard Nash. It is difficult to speak about and comprehend Parish priest Fr Tom Fitzpatrick last week echoed the words of Fr Raymond Donnelly at the service of removal in Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh, when he said the community had been shaken to its very core by the loss of a devoted mother and two beautiful children. Fr Fitzpatrick said people locally were struggling to come to terms with what happened. 'It is difficult to speak about and comprehend – or to get our minds around,' he said. Like Fr Donnelly, he assured the Whyte family they were not alone and that the community would rally to support them in their hour of heartbreak. 'What affects an individual or a family in a parish affects everyone,' he said. 'Everyone here is walking in the shadows of the cross with you.' Vanessa Whyte with her children Sara and James. Photo: PA Some mourners had parked just up the road from the Church of the Immaculate Conception by Le Chéile cafe and Hassetts Bar on Barefield's main street. Every time she returned to Barefield, Ms Whyte called to Le Chéile for a coffee, a snack and a catch-up on local news with her Clare friends. Now, mourners used the adjacent car park as they went to offer sympathy and solidarity to Vanessa's devastated relatives and tried to make sense of a tragedy that wiped out an entire young family. Some mourners wept as they waited to extend their condolences to the extended members of the Whyte family, who are one of the bedrocks of the proud community. Others simply stood in disbelief at how a planned joyful August homecoming could be transformed into one of such devastation. In Barefield, some took comfort in remembering the incredible woman that Vanessa was – and how she adored her children James and Sara. Vanessa was an incredible student, a great sportswoman and was always full of fun All three will be buried together after noon requiem mass today at nearby Templemaley Cemetery. Those shocked by the tragedy have also been asked to consider making a contribution to Women's Aid. Ms Whyte attended Barefield primary school – about 1km from the church – and then went to Coláiste Muire in Ennis. Former Barefield national school principal John Burns said the entire parish was in shock at the tragedy. 'Everyone in the parish is absolutely heartbroken – Vanessa was an incredible student, a great sportswoman and was always full of fun.' Vanessa Whyte with her teenage children Sara and James 'She was an incredible student and was one of the stars of our table quiz team.' He said Barefield was a very proud parish where everyone would now unite to support the family in their time of need. 'Everyone here will be there for them.' She was an honours student and, for her Leaving Cert in 1998, scored top marks, easily securing her dream course of veterinary studies in University College Dublin (UCD). 'We are deeply shocked by the news,' Scoil Muire principal Jean Pound said. 'Our thoughts are with Vanessa's family at this most difficult time.' Ms Whyte graduated from UCD in 2003 and began a career as a vet. She worked for a time for Lakelands Veterinary Services before taking up a position with the Northern Ireland Department of Agriculture in Enniskillen. Locals remembered her as an honours student and someone who adored sport, especially her beloved Clare senior hurling team. Vanessa was thrilled to be in Croke Park last year when Clare won the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Mourners follow the hearses containing the coffins of Vanessa Whyte and her children Sara and James following their service of removal at St Mary's Church in Maguiresbridge, Co Fermanagh. Photo: PA Barefield locals pointed to the fact that so many of the images in the media over the past week had been of Ms Whyte in Clare colours, proudly standing beside her children. Councillor Clare Colleran Molloy said it was deeply upsetting that yet another murder-suicide/attempted suicide had left an Irish community devastated. 'It is so, so sad that we are dealing with another tragedy like this in Ireland,' she said. Cllr Colleran-Molloy said it was 'beyond words' that yet another young Irish mother and her children had died in such horrific circumstances. 'My thoughts are with the family. This is a very strong community and people will rally together to support this family in every way they possibly can.'
Irish Daily Mirror
4 hours ago
- Irish Daily Mirror
'Despair is this morning draped like dark bunting over Barefield'
Despair is this morning draped like ominous, dark bunting over the Clare village of Barefield. The reverberations of the gun shots which ended the lives of Vanessa Whyte and her teenage children, James and Sara Rutledge, 150 miles away in Fermanagh echo in a haunting, incomprehensible volley across the 45-year-old's home place. Even under the July sunshine, Barefield is a place without light, the mood, to borrow from a 1950s Deep South preacher describing the climate of horror during that decade of serial Mississippi lynchings, blacker than a thousand midnights. A family wiped out, endless hopes and dreams expunged, heartbeats stilled in the heartbeat it takes to squeeze a cold trigger. The flag of decency flies at half-mast. Parents, lost for words, hug tightly to their offspring. Vanessa had studied veterinary medicine, a woman with a vocational urge to bring compassion into the world of struggling creatures, to ease their distress. Vanessa Whyte, pictured here wearing a Clare GAA jersey, alongside her children Sara Rutledge and James Rutledge (Image: The Police Service of Northern Ireland) For many years she was a camogie player, most vibrantly alive when she stepped onto a rectangle of grass, hurl in hand, and felt that exhilarating dopamine rush of sporting combat course through the entirety of her being. Her sense of place is self-evident in a beautiful photograph of James, Sara and herself attending a Clare hurling match, most likely one of the games on their run to 2024 All-Ireland glory, a milestone clinched a year to the week before the brutal tragedy. Vanessa stands between her two children, a protective, affectionate arm draped around each of their shoulders. The three of them, pillars supporting the others' lives. A portico of love. All are uniformed in The Banner's saffron and gold colours. Sara wears a Clare training top, her flowing mane held back by one of the headbands which are a fashion item on big match days. James, smiling blissfully, is blanketed by a county flag. Vanessa's county jersey, a badge of identity, is proudly on display beneath an unzipped sleeveless jacket. Though her eyes are hidden beneath sunglasses, her pride and maternal affection are strikingly evident in every pixel. Two decades living outside Clare, but the fire of place still burning at her core. Forever a daughter of the Banner. And though her children were affiliated with GAA clubs in Fermanagh, that they inherited their mother's passion for that beautiful Atlantic county of her birth is self-evident. Vanessa Whyte and her children, Sara (13) and James (14), on the big screen at Croke Park ahead of All-Ireland football final The picture is a sunburst of joy, a chorus of togetherness. It is the music of a family song. An idyllic scene that summons the words of the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "the time when they loved each other best, without hurry or excess." A snapshot that teems with life, yet, this morning, unimaginably, none of the photograph's trio of carefree figures breathe. A hailstorm of death rained down on Maguiresbridge, hard by Enniskillen, on Thursday. The narrow street of our understanding struggles to simultaneously accommodate these two truths - the vitality bursting from the match day freezeframe and the monstrous ending which leaves its three subjects with suddenly stilled hearts. At such moments, the world becomes a sentence without grammar, baffling, opaque, beyond comprehension. Earlier this week, I spoke to my friend Mick Galwey, the beloved former Munster and Ireland rugby player. A Kerryman imbued with the dust of the land that formed him (and a teenage All-Ireland winner under Mick O'Dwyer in 1986), our conversation centred around tomorrow's Croke Park showpiece, the mesmeric David Clifford front and centre of our chat. Hearses carrying the three coffins. (Image: Justin Kernoghan) Mick, a man of emotional depth, speaks with powerful empathy about the sudden death of his friend and teammate Anthony Foley. "Axel" was just 42 and coaching Munster when, without warning, his heart ran out of juice in the autumn of 2016. Galwey had been best man at Foley's wedding. Seven years between them, but they were tight. Like an elder and younger brother. Just a week before his death, Foley had driven straight from a match to Mick's 50th birthday party. "Not a bother on him. In mighty form. A week later he was dead. It took me to a very dark place. You are wondering 'what is this about?' "It was devastating and terrifying to realise you can be laughing and joking and seemingly in full health one day and then, bang, it is all over. Christ." Though the circumstances are very different, the surge of emotion that floored a warrior giant as he accompanied his friend's body home, the cortege driving past their old Thomond Park stomping ground to find the streets lined by thousands, the footpaths wet with tears, will, I suspect, resonate with those closest to Vanessa. The three are to be buried in Ennis, Co. Clare, on Saturday. (Image: Jonathan Porter/PressEye) A huddle of broken family and friends, poor souls who must be adrift in the heaviest fog of grief and bewilderment. Galwey's memories, though stark, poetically express the human impulse to draw strength from the deepest bonds: "You are broken hearted, I mean broken hearted, but you want to grab the guy next to you and say, I don't know, say, 'I love you.'" Sport - notably, hurling - is an essential thread in the fabric of Barefield, a means for a small place to maintain its identity, even as the tentacles of the nearby big town, Ennis, sink deeper and deeper into its heartland. Jamesie O'Connor, the 1997 Hurler of the Year, a totemic figure on Ger Loughnane's class of 1995, the one that ended Clare's 81 year wait for an All-Ireland, hurled for the local club, St Joseph's Doora-Barefield. His brother Christy, the long-time St Joseph's goalkeeper and a decorated sports writer, penned an evocative, award-winning tome about a year in the life of the village centrepiece, a communion of people that was such a part of Veronica's life. Titled "The Club", the book is set against the backdrop of two tragedies in the parish and reveals the central role - supportive, cathartic, practical, distracting, vital - the local GAA branch plays at times of stygian struggle. Vanessa's father, Joe, played on St. Joseph's first ever county hurling winning team in 1954. Her brothers, Steve and Ivor, hurled alongside Jamesie and Christy. It is a familiar tale. Among the more affecting moments of big match days at Croke Park are when tributes are paid to a recently deceased stalwart, their picture flashing up on the big screen as the PA announcer, Gerry Grogan, gives a potted history of their life of service. What gets me right in the gut is when, spontaneously, a burst of applause, gentle at first, then rising in volume yet always respectful, accompanies the brief eulogy. Most people don't personally know the deceased, but they are aware of somebody just like them in their own community. A father, a daughter, a neighbour, who, though their volunteerism or their sporting deeds, improved the lives of others. In that cameo, when applause disturbs the silence, goodness lives. As it indisputably will in Clare and Fermanagh in the days ahead, a sustaining counterpoint to the unfolding horror and disorientation that makes it hard to breathe. No mother will look at the pictures of Vanessa with James and Sara without seeing their own children and feeling the strongest protective surge of something visceral and primal wash over them. Something born in the womb. Tragedies like these are a crossword puzzle in an alien tongue. How can anybody begin to look for answers when they cannot even comprehend the clues. A year ago, on a joyous day, perhaps Vanessa and her children sang along as Tony Kelly inspired All-Ireland glory was accompanied by a deafening Croke Park chorus. "Oh my lovely rose of Clare/you're the sweetest girl I know/the queen of all the roses/and the pretty flowers that grow/you are the sunshine of my life/so beautiful and fair/and I will always love you/my lovely rose of Clare. Those words means infinitely more this morning. Barbarously difficult weeks and months stretch before those who share a bloodline with Vanessa, James and Sara. They will know the profound truth in Mick Galwey's description of broken hearts, in the elemental need to hold somebody close and tell them, with tears filling their eyes and unbearable hurt stabbing at their soul, they are loved.
The Irish Sun
21 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
I'm still traumatised & needed antidepressants – Tinder Swindler's victims reveal how life is now 10 years on
A DECADE has passed since Cecilie Fjellhoy and Pernilla Sjoholm's lives were turned around by a man they knew as Simon Leviev. Posing as a billionaire diamond heir, he conned them an 8 Simon Leviev used Tinder to seduce and con women out of an estimated £7.4 million Credit: Instagram 8 Pernilla Sjoholm and Cecilie Fjellhoy – victims of tinder swindler Simon Leviev Credit: Pernilla Sjoholm Instagram 8 Tinder Swindler boasts luxury lifestyle with flash vehicles Credit: While the Netflix documentary "I'm still traumatised," Cecilie, 36, tells She reveals that 'no victim' should be placed into a courtroom and be forced to defend themselves. Between 2017 and 2019, he posed as Simon, a 31-year-old and the fictional son of billionaire Lev Leviev, to swindle women all over Europe. READ MORE ON TINDLER SWINDLE After changing his name from Shimon Hayut, Simon Leviev used Tinder to seduce and con women out of an estimated £7.4 million. He falsely claimed to be the son of Leviev was a wanted man in several European countries, having fled Israel in 2011 to avoid fraud charges. In 2019, he was arrested in Greece for using a fake passport and extradited to Israel. Most read in Fabulous He faced charges for fraud, theft, and forgery, but none of these charges were related to his Tinder scheme or his other alleged crimes abroad. After fleeing Israel to avoid fraud charges from his early 20s, Leviev moved to High-flying businesswoman targeted by The Tinder Swindler after he resurfaced on Instagram He had previously served two years in a Finnish prison for defrauding three women and was released in 2017. He briefly returned to Israel but escaped before he could be captured again. When he was finally arrested in 2019, it was for the forgery, theft, and fraud charges he had previously faced. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison but was released after just five months due to good behavior. Cecilie was conned into taking out nine loans totaling $250,000 (£190,000), and was hounded by creditors to the point where she contemplated suicide. Suicide She eventually sought help at a psychiatric unit and has spent the last seven years in therapy. She 'never wanted to be on' antidepressants but explains that she 'needed them.' Due to being hit with a lawsuit by creditors and police barging into her home, Cecilie needed to be on antidepressants. Pernilla, 38, also contemplated suicide after learning the truth about the man she considered a friend. He's really angry with all the successes that we have had Cecilie Fjellhoy She lost the $45,000 (£33,840) she had saved for a home deposit and then doubled that amount in legal fees when she tried to take her bank to court. The fallout from the exposé in a Norwegian newspaper led to death threats from Leviev, leaving her questioning not only "what I would do to myself; I didn't know what Simon might try to do to me." But today, the women are finally reclaiming their power . The enormous reach of the Netflix documentary made Leviev a recognisable figure, effectively ending his con. 8 He falsely claimed to be the son of "King of Diamonds," Lev Leviev Credit: 8 Pernilla Sjőholm, a Tinder Swindler victim Credit: Jam Press/Pernilla Sj�holm "He's really angry with all the successes that we have had," Cecilie says. "I think he really wanted us to be miserable for the rest of our lives." Instead, they've become fierce advocates for victims of romance fraud. They now travel the world giving talks about online safety, and Pernilla has even co-founded an identity verification platform. The goal Their new book, Swindled Never After: How We Survived (and You Can Spot) a Relationship Scammer, is an unflinching look at their journey, complete with online safety tips and expert insights. The goal, they say, is to change the laws and fight the victim-shaming that so often follows these crimes. Pernilla is now a mother to two-year-old twins and has moved on, refusing to let Leviev "continue to defraud me" by consuming her life with anger. Cecilie, who says she still "loves love," has also returned to dating, albeit with a new sense of caution. 8 Leviev had previously served two years in a Finnish prison for defrauding three women and was released in 2017 Credit: 8 Tinder has stated that they have banned Leviev from their app and that he is not on it under any known alias Credit: 8 Leviev has even reinvented himself as a real estate mogul and offers classes in business education Credit: Instagram She's not worried about being financially duped again, as, "There's nothing left. I'm bankrupt. I can't even get a credit card." While his victims continue to pay off the massive debts he left them with, Leviev is living as a free man in Israel, seemingly without any financial issues. He is rumoured to be dating an Israeli model, Kate Konlin, and his private Instagram account, with over 284,000 followers, is filled with photos of a lavish lifestyle, including helicopters and expensive dinners. Leviev has even reinvented himself as a real estate mogul and offers classes in business education. Tinder has stated that they have banned Leviev from their app and that he is not on it under any known alias. How to protect yourself from fraud USE the following tips to protect yourself from fraudsters. Keep your social media accounts private – Think twice before you your share details – in particular your full date of birth, address and contacts details – all of this information can be useful to fraudsters. Deactivate and delete old social media profiles – Keep track of your digital footprint. If a profile was created 10 years ago, there may be personal information currently available for a fraudster to use that you're are not aware of or you have forgotten about. Password protect your devices – Keep passwords complex by picking three random words, such as roverducklemon and add or split them with symbols, numbers and capitals. Install anti-virus software on your laptop and personal devices and keep it up to date – This will make it harder for fraudsters to access your data in the first place. Take care on public Wi-Fi – Fraudsters can hack or mimic them. If you're using one, avoid accessing sensitive apps, such as mobile banking. Think about your offline information too – Always redirect your post when you move home and make sure your letter or mailbox is secure.
