loading...
By Obinna Odenigbo
A 59 year old British lady- Vicky Fowkes, decided to start dating online in early summer 2010 and by August she was sending ‘moneygrams’ to Nigeria. The recepient made her believe he was a charming British man called John Hawkins.
By November 2010 the man, who claimed he was an engineer with his own property business, had received nearly £40,000 or N10,000,000 in local Naira conversion
But Ms Fowkes’ hope of love was shattered when police visited her home in Tewkesbury, Worcestershire, and revealed the romance was scam concocted by an internet fraudster.
The mother-of-two said: “I put my trust in this person and I was beginning to start a relationship with them, but now the whole affair has had a devastating effect on my life… I have been humiliated and have lost my self respect.”
Ms Fowkes, a self-employed child care consultant, began sending money to Nigeria in August 2010 after her internet lover failed to visit her at Heathrow after telling her he had booked a flight.
She said: “He was due to come for a visit in August but he wasn’t on the flight and then when he rang later that day he said they stopped him at customs to do with tax issues with his business… Two weeks later he started asking me for money.”
The man masquerading as John Hawkins claimed he was being fined by the government for the tax that he owed.
But West Mercia Police visited Ms Fowkes and broke the news that she was the victim of a con artist.
Robin Longmore, a financial intelligence development officer for West Mercia Police said: “Through our investigations we started to believe Vicky was a victim. This kind of thing is a massive problem in Nigeria and Ghana with groups of men sitting in internet cafes all conning people over their internet dating sites… We believe that this person was operating from Nigeria and John Hawkins is clearly a made up name and the pictures that he used are obviously taken from the internet and are innocent members of the public.”
Copyright: http://dailytimes.com.ng
loading...
loading...
Ha, ha, ha!!! Very, very funny, indeed. Of course scammers are to be blamed and put behind bars if ever caught, just because they are criminals that need to be stopped. But the stupid people that fuel their scams are to be laughed at. A scam (every scam I mean, because not all scams are necessarily Nigerian ones) is usually quite obvious, no need for a scientist’ or genius’ brain, it only takes some common sense and logic, along with a golden rule (with no exception): never send money to a person you have never met before, not even the smallest amount, not even 1 cent or penny. Meeting new people on the Internet and even dating them became usual for some persons, but stupidity comes packed with that particular individual, so maybe they deserve this type of mishap.
loading...