Form Submitted On: 2020-01-16 07:13:24
What name did the scammer use?: Kevin Olsen / Kev
What site/app did you first meet the scammer on?: Hinge UK. Scammer has deleted profiles he had
What email address(es) did the scammer use?: None - all contact was by WhatsApp using a UK mobile telephone number
What phone number(s) did the scammer use?: +44 7458 604723
Briefly explain what happened during the scam. : Scammer was very clever - he had me fooled for several weeks. Said he was originally from Denmark and the son of a diplomat and had lived in Namibia and the USA where he claimed he had an ex wife and a daughter. Said he owned a civil engineering company in London where he had lived for 5 years. Had several long phone calls with him - slight Scandinavian accent, seemed intelligent, a little shy and softly spoken. Said a few days after making first contact he had to oversee a project in Pretoria, South Africa, to build a bridge and access road and he would be gone for 4 weeks and could we stay in touch until he got back when we planned to meet for dinner. All fine for 3 weeks - swapped calls and text messages on WhatsApp - nothing suspicious. He came across as a really nice guy who was genuine and perfectly normal with no OTT flattery about me.
1 week before he was meant to fly home he disappeared for two days and I was worried. I sent message to ask if he was OK. He replied after a day saying he was just leaving hospital and there had been a terrible accident with a crane and three of his workmen were in ICU. He says he had been injured by being beaten up by an angry mob as he was the head of the company. Claimed vital documents in a briefcase were stolen during attack and he eventually says he needed £8,000 urgently as he needed a lawyer to get duplicated of original building licenses and permits. All sounded very plausible as he did not ask me directly for money - he was grooming me to get me to offer to help him. I only realized this when he made a couple of small mistakes about the technicalities if using an international money broker ( I lived abroad so knew all about using one unlike the vast majority of people ).
Discovered by a bizarre coincidence that he was using at least one other fake profile on Hinge again claiming to be Danish but with rurally different photos and details. Once he found out I knew he deleted both profiles stat and blocked me on WhatsApp.
Did not have time to get screenshots of original photos on profile he first contacted me on but these were definitely genuine and must have been stolen from a real person (did a reverse image search as soon as he contacted me and nothing came up) unlike the image in jacket and tie which is a photoshopped head onto a picture of someone called Antonio Mora (multiple Emmy Award winning journalist and television news anchor).
I am well aware of romance scams and was in my guard right from the start but this scammer was incredibly good. There was nothing untoward and everything was understated if anything eg it took him a couple of weeks to say I sounded like a really lovely person. This guy is a real pro. Have reported him to Hinge but of course it is too late as he deleted his profiles whilst I was actually racing to report him.
I have been left very shaken and upset by this experience. I looked forward to meeting him and to our conversations and text exchanges.
Did you send any money to the scammer? If so, how much?: No, but said if he couldn’t get all the 8K he needed urgently I would maybe take it to his company’s lawyer in London once I had a legal signed loan agreement.
+447458604723
Number billable as mobile number
Country or destination United Kingdom
Original network provider* Hutchison 3G UK Ltd