An 83-year-old widow has described how she lost more than £20,000 to a scammer after playing Scrabble online.
The victim, from Oldham, Manchester, whose name has been changed to Alice to protect her identity, lost the money to a romance scammer over the course of 18 months.
Alice, who was 81 when this began, believed she met a millionaire in their 60s based in the US via an online Scrabble game. While the two of them initially got on, the scammer gradually started to ask for money after they moved their conversations to a different platform.
Later the victim would say they felt they had a connection to the scammer who claimed that, like her, they had lost their partner.
On several occasions, the scammer convinced the victim to send him money after he claimed he needed bailing from police custody in Istanbul, Turkey and his daughter needed an operation to save her leg.
Around a year and a half after their interactions began, the victim began to suspect she may have been the victim of a scam and contacted her brother.
The victim’s brother, whose name has been changed to David, said: “We knew Alice’s behaviour had changed but we found out something was seriously wrong when she came to my wife and I for help.
“She said I’ve been a fool; I’ve just been to the bank, and I’ve been sending money to someone abroad.
“There have been many different scams in total that we know of targeting my sister – but I think it’s either all the same person or a group of scammers who are based somewhere in Nigeria.”
David added: “My sister sent over £20,000 to scammers over 18 months, and I think if my wife and I hadn’t been there to help her, eventually they would have cleaned her out.
“The scammers are very clever; they target things like online scrabble because they know this is a place where they’ll find older women with a bit of money.
“And it always goes the same way, where the scammer starts off by building a relationship and then claims they haven’t got access to their bank card and need a bit of money and will pay you back.
“He’d never use Alice’s name, it was always ‘babe’, ‘sweetie’, ‘queen’ or ‘hunny’ because they have so many on the go that they don’t want to risk using the wrong name.”
Following the scam, Alice’s brother now has Power of Attorney and helps the bank investigate suspicious transactions on Alice’s accounts.
In a statement, the GMP Economic Crime Unit’s Detective Sergeant Stacey Solomon said: “My staff met David in December last year as he was giving a talk at a bank and directed him to report to Action Fraud. Unfortunately, his story is far from unique and there are many people who fall victim to such scams.
“I hope his experience will help other victims realise what is happening to them and encourage them to make a report. Everyone should be vigilant online, and I want to emphasise that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“Stop and think before responding to strangers you’ve met online, especially if they start asking for money. Criminals are experts at impersonating other people, and they spend days, weeks, months and even years cultivating a relationship with you all to execute a scam and take your money.
“If you suspect you or someone you know is a victim of romance fraud, please seek help sooner rather than later and report it.”
