Romance fraudster targeted widow, 81, who was heartbroken by death of her husband and fleeced her out of £27,000
An 81-year-old widower was fleeced out of £27,000 after being targeted by a romance fraudster who took advantage of her loneliness.
Doreen Daniel became the victim of the scammer shortly following the death of her husband Gordon, leaving her family devastated.
Romance fraud is when scammers pretend to be interested in a relationship with their victim in order to gain their trust before manipulating them into sending money or personal information.
Doreen, from Angmering in West Sussex, received messages and calls on WhatsApp from a man claiming to be a financial advisor called Adam, living in Switzerland and Monaco.
After building a friendship with her, he convinced the widower to download an app that let him take remote control of her devices and transfer money out of her bank accounts.
The fraudster convinced Doreen that the money would be entered into a raffle for a chance to win £100,000.
Her family said they did not know that she was being scammed until her bank card was declined while food shopping.
After going through accounts, they became aware of huge amounts of money that had been taken out of Doreen's account.
The scammer had also archived all of the messages on WhatsApp so her family 'didn't find them for ages'.
The family believe she was targeted by the scammer due to the fact she had been recently widowed.
Karen Daniel, Doreen's daughter, told the BBC: 'To hit on someone who is that vulnerable when they have just lost their life partner, it makes me feel sick. How can somebody been so cruel to do that?'.
They also believe Doreen had been victim of several other scams before the romance fraud including ordering diet pills through dodgy social media links.
Another incident saw the family find a man in her house attempting to persuade her to buy water softening product for £4,000.
Doreen's granddaughter, Jasmine El Samad, a journalism student, recorded a conversation with her grandmother to gain a better understanding of the scam.
In the recording, Doreen admitted that Adam made her feel 'special' and sounded 'very knowledgeable' but added that he wouldn't let her see him on a video call.
Believing she was entering a raffle to win the digital currency bitcoin, Doreen said she continued to allow the investments despite thinking something didn't feel right.
Jasmine said: 'He'd complimented her appearance, saying things like, "you can't be 80".
'Flattery would have got you anywhere with Nan quite frankly at that point, after Granddad passed away.
'Making her think that she had this friend that was also going to change her life financially - it was the perfect combination of an attack really.
Doreen's family were able to get around £18,000 back from the bank but the crime was never reported to the police.
The 81-year-old died in November 2023 after suffering two mini strokes which her family believe was brought on by the loss of her husband and the stress caused by the scams.
Fraud makes up 40 per cent of all recorded crime in England and Wales, Home Office figures show with Action Fraud saying that in £92m was lost by victims to romance scams in 2024.
Between 2020 and 2024, the cases of romance scams reported to Action Fraud have increased by 27 per cent.
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