The world of online dating is a bit of an alien creature to me. When I was last on the market, online dating didn’t even exist, having been in a 20 year relationship. I knew it was going to be a nightmare from listening to friends experiences, but I guess I was a little naïve as to just how shark infested the waters really are, but I’m not a fan of being sea food, so I’ve persevered.
I set up accounts on Plenty of Fish and Bumble. I put a lot of effort into my profile. I took a few nice selfies, and was entirely open and honest. I did a lot of swiping (mostly left) and made the first contact, using my wit and charm to draw intrigue.
I had a few conversations with women that didn’t go anywhere, but I knew that this was part of the game.
Finding Suscam
One day I got a like from a fairly attractive looking lady, so I started a conversation. She seemed genuinely interested in my travel adventures. The fact that I felt like I had made the first move by contacting her disarmed my defences a little, and I ignored a few oddities.
For example, when we got talking, it turned out some of the details on her profile were false, but with plausible motives. We exchanged numbers and WhatsApp messages. She was sweet, demure, and interested in my life. I thought I’d struck gold, and so did she.
We talked on the phone, but it was always voice calls. She always rang me and the calls tended to last half an hour. Every now and again, she’d send me another photo of herself, which made me think she was not a catfish, but I ignored the signs. Questions ignored, which I put down to English not being her first language (she said she was Swiss) but her accent had a hint of South African. I’d never really heard Swiss English though so I gathered it could have been normal.
She spoke about an ex-husband, and her mum, and step-brothers but never by name. Her dad supposedly died when she was 3, and her step dad in a car crash 3 years ago. She was all alone without family. Her profile said she lived in Bradford but she would never name specific places.
Almost had me, almost
What really caught me out was when she sent me childhood pictures. It was clear that this was the same person, so I now felt safe. I asked if I could send her a birthday card, which was a few weeks away and she said yes. I found it odd that she said no lover had ever sent her a card on her birthday before, not even her ex husband?
However, the day I asked for her address for the card, she told me she had decided that we would have our first date on her birthday and it made me feel she was legit.
She told me she was preparing a presentation for work to win a big contract. She was allegedly a Project Manager in the telecoms industry. A few days later, she won the contract. Later that evening she announced that the contract was a job in Turkey and she’d have to leave a few days later so our first date plans were off.
Alarm bells, not wedding bells
Now, I’m not stupid. It rang alarm bells. She showed me a “contract” that looked nothing like any business contract I’ve ever seen, and it was a US company and the work was supposed to be in Florida. I asked her why the contract said Florida when she said Turkey. I asked her for details of the airport she was flying from, flight numbers and also for a video call before she left. She ignored all my questions.
I was sure I was dealing with a scammer and by now, I was just interested in what the script was going to be. I asked her to send me a picture of her sat on her bed with her hair down, and she sent me a picture just like that except her hair was tied up. It confused me a little as I was expecting an excuse, but sure enough, a couple of days later, I get a message from another number. She had lost her phone and was using her “business” one. The account did have her photo but it looked like she had put on weight so either she had been over indulging on turkish delight on the trip or she had been sending me old pictures before.
She didn’t ask for anything from me at first and I played the game, playing along with the story, but I asked her why her phone wasn’t roaming (I traced it through a website) if she was abroad and I told her what network each phone was on. The message didn’t get through and now both phones appeared offline.
Surprise, Surprise
A few days pass, and I get a message from a third number on WhatsApp. This was “her friend’s” phone and she wanted to ring me. No profile picture for this one. It was a WhatsApp business account with the name “Love”. I mean, come on. If you’re going to try to scam people, at least make it consistent and plausible.
I played the game some more, went along with it but also asked difficult questions to see how long it would be before she realised that I was wasting her time. I’ve captured the conversation in all of its hilarity. Oh, and I’ve reported her account to the authorities, complete with voice recordings and every text interaction we had.
But it didn’t end there
After I sent her the last message, which said I’d booked a flight to Istanbul and needed her location, that we would get a helicopter out of there and that I was really a crypto millionaire, I thought I’d never hear back again but then I get a message offering to video call me. I setup my phone to record, unfortunately it didn’t capture my side of the conversation but it did get hers. She tried to voice call twice, so I rejected the calls. Then the video call came through and it was the same person but she made out the network was bad and the video kept freezing to a still photo of her. After a few minutes, the line went dead. I didn’t notice it during the call but the video footage of her looped.
I decided to pretend to give her what she wanted. I mocked up a fake transaction that looked quite convincing, except I called my account J LOADSAMONEY, put 666 in the account number and used the reference code MISSION TURKISH DELIGHT. I uploaded the image to the cloud then set up a link using Grabify. If she clicked on the link it would record her IP address before redirecting her to the image. I thought to myself, surely she wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for this one? But she did, and it revealed an IP address in Nigeria, as well as Cyprus (I guess she tried the link from a laptop with a VPN but didn’t use a VPN on her phone).
I’m not going to spoil how the conversation ended, but fans of Liam Neeson may enjoy how I signed off. Sadly WhatsApp is no longer active on her phone. If you want to read the full transcript from the last few days, click through the slideshow below. I would recommend getting the popcorn out first.
If it seems too good to be true, it probably is
Unfortunately it hasn’t been the only fake profile or scam I’ve come across on these dating apps, and it won’t be the last. If you look at my “Date me?” page, you’ll see the steps I have in place to stop catfish. Even if someone genuinely looks like who they say they are, it doesn’t mean they don’t have malicious intent, so be careful out there. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. The minute anyone mentions needing money or crypto to you, walk away. Do not let yourself be the next victim. They can seem convincing and they’re relying on the human need for connection to get away with their crimes.
I don’t want anyone else to be scammed by these people and given their intelligence levels, I suspect they will reuse the same numbers so if anyone gets a call from Suzanne Blackmans or any other alias on the numbers 07407 681 513, 07572 490 666 or, 07497 883 873 or get asked to pay into account 29845203, sort code 23-14-70, hopefully they will google the numbers and find this page. I would love to find out whose images the scammers have stolen. Anyone with any information can contact me using info@mylovecv.com.
