Facebook Swindler: 'My Online Lover Conned Me Out Of My Life Savings' | This Morning

she is blind and that couldn't be more true for our next guest after she met a man

online

sunita britain uh she thought she had found her perfect match sadly all she found was a scammer who ended up scamming her out of her

life

savings

sunita join us now, welcome, it's a pleasure to meet you. I feel like

this

is a conversation we have more often on

this

couch because you're not alone with this. um, you joined Facebook. It was in January a long time ago and very quickly. I met a man and he called himself Michael Anderson, so what did he tell you about himself?

Well, he said that was all he talked about. He had in common with me. He was adopted. He was from England, but then it turned out that he was from. Zurich and I was just trying to talk, uh, all about it, so Danny, everything you wanted to hear here, yeah, yeah, so you recently came out of a divorce, yeah, um, you were at your most vulnerable, very alone, incredibly lonely, yes, yes, and we. I've heard this story so many times and usually that's the key you're in the place you want to find one you're desperately alone um and he shows up, along comes the guy who says everything you want him to say Say yes, yes, looking back, like that moment when you fell in love with him very quickly, yes there were red flags that you should have seen, yes, but because of the state of my mind at the time he was there, the flags you don't see. the flags because she's so dragged and he's almost grooming you yeah he's getting in your head and there were red flags the pictures weren't stacking they were overlapping now when I look back I see and um he sent these tickets plane that is not Not real and is very convincing when he asked me to make some transactions.

He was seeing actual transactions from one account to another account. You know, when it goes to 30. The 40-bit transaction is complete. Very convincing. Very convincing. Yes, and he is using fake websites and fake banks. accounts, even his company, everything was fake, but the most powerful tool he had was emotion, I think actually, I rather mean, yes, he was complex and intelligent and he was this other one, but emotionally in the space of two weeks He told you he loved you and you just said it there, you were vulnerable, you were alone, yeah, this is all you wanted to hold on to, something you want to hold on to, so some of the things, I mean, he didn't, you didn't want to. facetime.

I think you saw him once on Facetime, but it was really ruined, so you wouldn't know he didn't want to, he didn't want you to see him, yeah he was, he was just texting me afterwards and then telling me. He told me that he was going to offer me this

life

, yes, and I think, as human beings, you hold onto something and some hope when you've had devastation in your life. I mean, the worst thing is I think now because we're doing this interview. many, yes, it almost has to be a new tool in our relationship.

Human armory, yes, if you go

online

and within two weeks someone tells you that they love you and that you have never met them and they have never shown their face and then they ask you for money which has to be a new tool because as you say yourself If it seems too good to be true it's not, he's an international businessman, yes, he's online, he sees you and tells you he loves you in a fortnight. yes, and it's not just him alone, he probably has it the police had said there is a network of people, yes, operating this scam and it's not just online dating sites targeting retired pensioners, widows and widowers, well , let's talk a little about what happened. then because he's obviously telling you that he's lovely, that he loves you and then he calls you out of the blue to tell you that he's in jail and that he needs some money and actually, first of all what he was asking you, which is Pretty smart, it's just that I needed you to do it. handles his money so he gives you access to the bank account yeah he asks you to transfer funds so this is like well he's asking me for money here he trusts me he trusts me yeah so all this It's build, build, build until one of the last payments is finally made.

He didn't want to come over and that's when he said: can you come? can you, yes, and this is a lot of money, yes, this is your life

savings

, yes, but you did it, I did it, I did it stupidly, but I wanted to help him out of a situation. um he was showing so much crying emotion that he was in prison in um the Cypriot government while uh the police were holding him in prison and he needed money to raise and get him out if you had seen the Tinder scammer well interestingly phillip um . It was a week later when I got scammed if I had seen Tinder Swindler Swindler a week before I probably wouldn't have done it oh my god you know and I remember when I realized £9000.

I knew then because of course he was supposed to come back to this course, so he, you receive, you send the money, then he will release it, he says he will come back, he will come here, he will see you and then he will get the videos and he has videos of his suitcases that he is checking. Passing by uh, of course, you can't see his uh, I can't see his face waiting for his luggage there, but yeah, it was all fake, I can't see his face on the way to the plane, yes, and then, and then.

I received a text from this fake lawyer saying that they are holding Mr. Anderson. They escorted him off the plane back to prison in Cyprus and he is trying to contact you but they took the phone and he needs more money, well luckily at this point you can find it from a friend because you haven't told no one about this and your friend clearly did the right thing, I think some things are right, yes, she says, wake up, heal, this is a scam, yes, you realize. This is the help you received, you went to the police and many people in your position there is a lot of shame and a lot of embarrassment because God thinks what people are going to think of you by talking about this today you will prevent someone from falling into the same trap, yes, but the police was amazing and the bank was amazing yeah well the police came because obviously this guy had my ID my driver's license I felt like they knew where you knew where I lived and um there.

It was a situation where I thought they were following me well that kind of after you got the police involved and then you talked to your bank and it was the cooperative that deserves a mention because they've been oh gosh yeah um and uh so they froze your account and they froze his account, which scared him, that scared him a lot because there must have been money in that account because he kept bothering me and bothering me, calling me all the time saying please, please, can you release that? money call the banks tell them its a mistake tell them its my fiancé and unfreeze that account I said no no I wont and as far as I know this is still in the hands of the police. the police are handling it the fraud team is handling it because I campaigned with the police uh my bank complied and gave me my money back.

I'm very lucky but HSBC bank wouldn't do it, they were still investigating it so I wouldn't do it if I hadn't done anything. They probably wouldn't have refunded my money. Well, you're one of the lucky ones. I really do, and you always know I really tried, so your message to anyone watching is what I would do. Say if you're on these dating sites for facetime, make sure you do. To begin with, don't reveal too much of your information. Always meet them in a public area you know, coffee shop or and um, don't give up. You don't give me your details and no good, he didn't get my bank details.

I made a transaction, but don't give it to me. Oh, just don't do it. Yes, it was a terrible moment for me because I only remember my stomach when. I realized it was a scam. I went to physics. That was hysterical. Did it discourage you from finding love in the future? Oh yes, and no, that. I'm so tired of people now. You know, and what are the reasons. I know it's important, please don't say that you shouldn't let that stop you from moving forward in life without making it harder for them to manipulate the way they do it for them, they don't care about emotions or what they do, that It's the job, they're absolutely real, they learn nine thousand dollars in them, yeah, weeks, you know, yeah, a lovely, lovely life, yeah, wow, nice to meet you, oh, thank you, thank you.