Latest news with #romancescam
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
Perth grandmother Donna Nelson to appear in Japanese court in drug smuggling appeal bid
A Japanese court is set to decide this week whether it will re-examine the case of an Australian woman convicted of smuggling almost two kilograms of methamphetamine into the country. Perth grandmother Donna Nelson has always maintained her innocence, saying she was duped by an elaborate romance scam into carrying a bag with drugs concealed inside. Ms Nelson, a former Greens candidate who chaired a city-wide Indigenous health service and ran a charity for disadvantaged youths, was sentenced to six years in jail in December by a Japanese court. On Thursday the court will hear an application for an appeal that will include new evidence from an expert on romance scams. "When you talk to the experts, they can talk about the victimology side of it, the psychology, and how they're groomed," Ms Nelson's daughter, Ashlee Charles, told the ABC. During her trial, Ms Nelson gave evidence she was in an online long-distance relationship with a man known as Kelly for around two years before he offered to fly her to Japan. The flight included a stop in Laos where she said an associate of Kelly's gave her a bag which he claimed was a sample for Kelly's supposed fashion business. Japanese authorities found methamphetamine concealed in a false bottom. Mrs Charles said she and her four sisters had always believed in her mother's innocence. "I know that my mum is innocent because of the way she raised us," she said. Her sister Kristal has this week travelled with her family and nephew, Donna's grandson, to Japan in this latest bid to secure her freedom. Mrs Charles said navigating Japan's legal system from abroad had taken its toll on the Perth family. "We didn't know how long it would take for the appeal to get to the first hearing," Mrs Charles said. "It's really hard to navigate all of this, but also navigate day- to-day life without our mum. "It's really hard if you get sick, or something happens in your life you can't wait to tell mum… you can't because obviously we don't have direct contact with her." She said they could only exchange letters with their mum, unless they flew to Japan and applied to see her in person in prison. "It would be nice if there was a phone system, even once a month, that we could talk to her," she said.
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Lovestruck man travels 500 miles to meet beauty queen ‘he believed was his ‘future wife'… to be greeted by her husband
A LOVESTRUCK man travelled nearly 500 miles to meet a beauty queen he had been talking to online - only to be greeted by her husband. Unlucky Belgian man Michel had turned up at Sophie Vouzeland's home in Saint-Julien, France, and announced he was her "future husband". 6 6 6 But Sophie's actual husband Fabien emerged from the home and quipped: "Well, I'm the current one." Stunning Sophie is a former Miss Limousin and 2007 Miss France runner-up. She boasts nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram alone and often posts her life on social media. 76-year-old Michel thought he had been speaking on WhatsApp to the beauty queen for weeks - and had even transferred an eye-watering £25,000 which he thought was just a loan. Michel is heard saying: "I think she played a dirty trick on me." The shocked man then shows Sophie's husband the many messages he and, who he thought was the French model, had exchanged. Fabien responded: "My wife, no, it's the fake accounts. "You have to be very careful." It didn't take long before Michel realised he had sadly been scammed, telling the couple: "I am an imbecile." Husband Fabien videoed some of the exchange and posted it to social media where it has garnered thousands of views. My boy, 14, thought he was innocently flirting with a girl online – 35-minutes later he was dead He also wrote a warning on the post about the dangers of romance scams. This is where someone is deceived into sending cash to a criminal who convinces them they're in an actual relationship. Fabien said in the post: "I feel so sorry for this man. "Watch out for fake accounts, I'm sharing this video to show you it's real and to be vigilant! Take care of yourself." Belgian man Michel is thought to be a widower of four years and was looking for love - but was heinously scammed. Sophie urged the deceived man to go to the cops to lodge a complaint. It remains unclear whether he has or not. The beauty queen expressed her sympathy for Michel and said the incident "hurts my heart". 6
Telegraph
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Scam victim travels 500 miles to find French beauty Queen ‘lover' is married
A Belgian man travelled nearly 500 miles to meet a French beauty queen who he thought was his future wife – only to find out that he had been the victim of a romance scam. The man, who called himself Michel, turned up at the home of Sophie Vouzelaud, in Saint-Julien and announced: 'I am the future husband of Sophie Vouzelaud.' Her husband, Fabien, came out and said to Michel: 'Well, I'm the current one.' Ms Vouzelaud is a former Miss Limousin and Miss France 2007 runner-up. She has nearly 300,000 followers on Instagram and posts frequently about her life on social media. Michel, 76, believed that he had been speaking on WhatsApp to the French model for weeks and had even sent £25,000 – which he thought was going to be paid back. 'I think she played a dirty trick on me,' Michel said. In desperation, Michel showed the husband his phone, and the string of messages exchanged between himself and the person he believed to be Ms Vouzelaud. 'My wife, no, it's the fake accounts,' Fabien replied. 'You have to be very careful.' Soon, Michel realised that he had been swindled, and told the couple: 'I am an imbecile.'
Daily Mail
09-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I was duped by a Nigerian love scammer who stole £200,000 from me after we met on Facebook - these are the red flags to look out for
A woman has told of being conned out of £200,000 by a romance scammer who bombarded her with gushing messages every day for two-and-a-half years. Elizabeth, who is in her sixties and lives in rural England, handed over her life savings, took out a loan and remortgaged her home to meet the man's ever increasing demands for money. Sharing her story in public for the first time, she bravely revealed how she fell victim to an elaborate catfishing plot orchestrated by a fraudster posing as an oil industry consultant from Texas. In reality, the criminal was based in Nigeria and had stolen photos of a real man before concocting a string of crisis scenarios to trick the kindhearted mother of two. At one point, he even pretended he had a daughter who had lost her newborn baby. During the whole period of the scam, he repeatedly promised to pay back the money and even delivered a fake cheque to her home for $1.832million dollars. Elizabeth, who did not want to give her real name for privacy reasons, said she 'can't believe' she fell for his evil lies, but was vulnerable at the time after breaking up with a 'toxic' partner. Hers is the latest account of the misery being caused by romance scammers, who conned British victims out of more than £88million last year. While these have involved individuals from multiple countries, many cases are linked to Nigeria, which is known to host informal academies - known as 'hustle kingdoms' - which train individuals in the art of tricking vulnerable victims. Elizabeth, who is now being assisted by the charity Victim Support, was first targeted in March 2022 while browsing a Facebook page dedicated to dogs. Her long-term relationship with a 'toxic, gas-lighting partner' had ended just months before. 'I got talking to one of the members who asked if we could message each other outside the group on Skype,' she told MailOnline. 'He said he was having an issue with rabbits eating some plants he had bought for his daughter. 'I'm an empath who always wants to help people, so I looked on Amazon and found some mesh that he could use to keep the rabbits out. 'Days later, I got a photo showing the mesh being put up and a message saying ''thank you so much''.' After this 'ordinary' conversation, the scammer began sending Elizabeth messages several times a day. 'We started talking about food so he would send recipes and photos of what he was eating,' she said. 'He said he was divorced, worked as a consultant in the oil industry and had a boxer dog, which he sent me lots of photos of too. 'At the time I was very vulnerable after coming out of this lengthy toxic relationship, so I guess I was an easy target. 'Each day he'd be messaging asking how I was and how my night had been. Having someone be kind and asking questions when I was in that frame of mind made me really open up.' By July - five months after the scammer first approached her - he began 'love-bombing' Elizabeth by sending her photos of flowers and hearts. He would also play word games with her and speak about how desperate he was to meet up. At one point, Elizabeth became suspicious when she noticed his Facebook profile said he had been to college in Nigeria - despite his claim to be American. But he batted away her concerns by claiming his profile had been changed by someone else. She was also confused when the scammer phoned her on Skype one day and she heard his Nigerian accent. 'I said I was having real difficulty understanding him,' Elizabeth said. 'But because in my brain I had thought he was Texan and American I just assumed that was what he sounded like - which is mad with hindsight.' At the height of the love-bombing campaign, Elizabeth said the man was messaging her several times a day and speaking of his 'very strong feelings' for her. She said that by August - after he had subjected her to half a year of relentless grooming - she began to think ''gosh, I really like this guy''. Delighted at what she thought was a budding romance, Elizabeth shared the news with her two best friends and two sons. 'One of my friends asked me to promise him to never give him any money,' she said. 'My eldest son warned me that he sounded like a scammer and to watch Tinder Swindler. But I completely ignored him.' It was around this time that the scammer began laying the groundwork for two of the stories he would use to squeeze money out of Elizabeth. One related to a new oil rig project the man said he had started in America after taking out a loan and remortgaging his house. The other related to his invented daughter, who he said had just split from her husband and was in desperate need of money. The scammer said he would have given this to her himself had he not just borrowed such a large sum of money. He asked her to send £1,500 using iTunes gift cards, which can be transferred between people using a code. This is a popular method used by scammers, who then sell on the cards online at a discount. 'It started in Autumn 2022 with me sending money for his daughter,' Elizabeth said. 'He then told me that a really expensive part of the rig had broken and he needed £10,000. I tried to send that via my bank but a man from the fraud department blocked it. 'The scammer said I should forget about all the money if it was causing me hassle. So for a few days I felt relieved, but then he came back and said I should use PayPal instead. 'He eventually got the money and said he was eternally grateful.' The man invented a string of other scenarios to persuade Elizabeth to send him cash. By December 2022 she had pawned her late mother's jewellery in a bid to help him - something that she said now makes her 'sick to the pit of my stomach'. The scammer's behaviour showed a keen awareness of human psychology. He demonstrated this in March 2023, when he showered Elizabeth with sympathy and affection after one of her close relatives died. 'The scammer appeared to be so kind and supportive - and the ''empathy'' he showed was unbelievable,' she said. 'He actually Facetimed me when I was driving but the call only lasted for two minutes. My sons now believe that was AI rather than him. 'I was in love with an image of someone who had been tailored to my specific needs. So I was totally brainwashed.' Showing the depths he was prepared to plumb, the scammer even posed the death of his imaginary daughter's baby. Elizabeth was subsequently sent emails from the 'heartbroken mother' asking for money. Another time, he posed as a doctor who wanted Elizabeth to help pay his medical bills after he had supposedly fallen seriously ill. Desperate to help, she would go on to take out a loan and remortgage her home. Ironically, the documents relating to these transactions would prove crucial to extricating Elizabeth from the scam after one of her sons found them in her bedroom and staged an 'intervention' with his brother in August 2024. Recalling the moment they confronted her, Elizabeth says: 'They asked ''what is this, what has gone on'' but I was very defensive initially.' In an experience that was remarkably similar to Elizabeth's, the scammer posed as a charming American oil-rig worker named 'David West'. In reality, this photo shows an American doctor whose photo had been stolen Ironically, the documents relating to these transactions would prove crucial to extricating Elizabeth from the scam after one of her sons found them in her bedroom and staged an 'intervention' with his brother in August 2024. Recalling the moment they confronted her, Elizabeth says: 'They asked ''what is this, what has gone on'' but I was very defensive initially.' The man had repeatedly promised to pay Elizabeth back and went as far as forging a cheque for $1.832million and having it delivered to her home via FedEx in October 2023. She said she presented this cheque to her sons as proof that the man was genuine, but they quickly realised it was a forgery. 'My eldest Googled the address and saw it was a funeral home - it was also covered with biblical quotes,' she said. 'When the reality hit, I just went to pieces. I realised that I meant nothing to this man - if he even was a man - and I was just a means to an end. 'I was so blinkered and sucked in. You believe someone because you want to believe them and completely lose touch of reality.' After realising she was the victim of a heartless scam, Elizabeth contacted the police and Action Fraud, the UK's national fraud reporting centre for cyber-crime. Aided by her sons, a 'fantastic' Action Fraud caseworker and the charity Victim Support - which she described as a 'life line' - she was able to persuade her bank to pay her back two-thirds of the £200,000 she had lost. Elizabeth was visited by a policewoman and gave a full account of what happened, but was told her case could not be pursued because the scammer lived outside the UK. She confronted the criminal on Skype, but he denied everything. Skype eventually agreed to block him and she has now deleted all the messages he sent her. Looking back on the experience, Elizabeth says she 'can't believe' she was taken in by the scam but urged onlookers not to judge. 'You reflect on it and you can't believe it was all a lie,' she said. 'I can't believe that I did what I did. But If you're not in that situation you won't be able to relate to. If you haven't walked my path then you can't judge. 'If my story helps just one person, then it would have been worth it.'
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Yahoo
Six women thought they found love online. It was a married father of 2 scamming them out of millions
A 35-year-old married father of two has pleaded guilty in a sophisticated romance scam that targeted women in Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Kansas. They all met and fell in love with the same man online, who purported to be working on an oil rig. The women sent him millions of dollars to cover medical bills after he claimed to be injured in a fire. A Massachusetts woman believed she was in a committed relationship with 'Williams Moore.' So did a New Jersey woman, who fell head over heels for her boyfriend, 'Manuel Sykes.' A Florida woman met 'Edward Nowak' online and believed him when he told her worked in Cyprus. Turns out, they were all 'dating' the same man—a married father of two young boys in Nigeria who worked in real estate and had a background in network marketing and sales. His real name? Charles Uchenna Nwadavid. He pleaded guilty in Boston in June, admitting to charges of mail fraud, aiding and abetting money laundering, and money laundering. According to court documents, Nwadavid was running a romance scam, in which criminals love-bomb lonely—often elderly—people on dating apps and social media to quickly gain their affections. The targets are often vulnerable women. Romance scams boomed during the pandemic and have since continued to haunt people over 60. According to the FBI, there were nearly 18,000 complaints about romance fraud in 2024, and some 7,600 victims were over age 60. The losses attributed to that age cohort totaled $389 million last year, with total losses among all age groups approximately $672 million. A 66-year-old Montana woman involved in a different romance scam named Rita told authorities she lost more than $90,000 over nearly five months in 2024 after she fell for a 'celebrity' who started asking her for money. She said she was vulnerable as she went through a divorce and became almost addicted to the texts she would get from her purported romantic partner. 'For me, these texts were like a drug,' she said. 'Like, I needed them to live.' Now, they make her sick and she said she feels like she lost her heart and soul by being scammed in the fake relationship. 'Hindsight is always 20-20,' Rita told the FBI, according to a June video. 'But I wasn't thinking with my brain, I was thinking with my heart.' In addition to Nwadavid, authorities in June sentenced five people for running a $17 million romance and investment scam ring. Similarly, a Missouri woman admitted last month to aiding a Nigerian romance scam that netted $1 million and involved at least one victim in her early 70s. Like in the other romance frauds, Nwadavid never met any of the six women involved in the romance scam in person, only communicating with them through email and text. As part of the scheme and to keep himself concealed, authorities said Nwadavid tricked his first victim, one of three women from Massachusetts, into opening a crypto account at Bitcoin of America. (Bitcoin of America was a crypto exchange headquartered in Chicago that has since ceased its operations.) Nwadavid then accessed her account and transferred the funds to Bitcoin wallets he controlled, authorities said. From there, Nwadavid used the Massachusetts woman as a 'money mule' to collect illicit funds from other unsuspecting women. From Jan. 2019 to June 2019, the New Jersey woman sent $896,000 to the money mule on behalf of her boyfriend, 'Manuel Sykes.' The Florida woman sent $235,000; another Massachusetts woman sent about $276,000. A fifth woman sent $230,000 and the sixth sent $239,100. Five of the women were told their 'boyfriend' had been seriously injured in an oil rig fire and needed Bitcoin to pay his medical bills. The sixth woman, who lived in Great Bend, Kansas, believed her boyfriend 'Clarence Manning' had inherited $2 million from his father but needed to travel to Spain to collect it. He then claimed to be hospitalized overseas. At that point, Nwadavid allegedly tricked the first woman, his money mule, into transferring the $2.5 million she had collected from the other five women into her crypto account. Nwadavid then allegedly traversed 210 Bitcoin from her account through intermediary accounts and into two other accounts of his. A lawyer for Nwadavid did not respond to Fortune's request for comment. Authorities declined to comment given the case is still pending. His sentencing is scheduled for September. This story was originally featured on
