I thought I met the perfect guy on a dating app but he scammed me

A woman thought the single father and wealthy businessman she met online was her perfect match – but it turns out he was using her for a romance scam.

Speaking on This Morning, Claire Spencer revealed that back in 2021 she met ‘Jack’ on the dating app Plenty of Fish and was within three weeks being asked for £1,000.

The fraudster had pretended to be stranded in Cambodia – with his wallet stolen – and had become ‘aggressive’ when his victim was hesitant to offer any cash up.

Jack had even suggested she sell her car or take a loan out, just to rescue him from the emergency. 

Claire eventually hesitantly borrowed £500 from a friend in order to be able to send the money across.

‘That humiliated me more, I was so devastated,’ she told Phillip Schofield and Rochelle Humes.

 ‘At the time I felt totally violated…you know, how gullible can you be?

‘But like people said to me that have known me years: “God you of all people, how?”.’

Jack had claimed to be a ‘builder of hotels’ who had a son and dogs – who had lived in the same town as Claire.

‘Kids and dogs, same sort of storyline as me,’ she told the programme.

‘We frequented the same sort of restaurants…I asked him which was his favourite at one point and unbeknownst to me I’d sent him a picture of my favourite…and he’d used that, without me thinking.

‘He’d pinpointed that.’

She admits that there were ‘a few red flags’ but also explained it was easy to be reassured.

Consumer affairs expert and presenter Alexis Conran (pictured) urged viewers to stay vigilant while looking for love online

The fraudster had pretended to be stranded in Cambodia – with his wllet stolen – and had gotten ‘aggressive’ when his victim was hesitant to offer any cash up

‘They convince you that “oh yeah, it’s alright…I’ll be back soon”,’ Claire said.

Jack was also using an Italian model’s pictures to convince her – with the fairytale romance only shattering once a friend of hers had realised she’d seen him elsewhere. 

Consumer affairs expert and presenter Alexis Conran urged viewers to stay vigilant while looking for love online. 

‘This is a relationship that starts online via dating apps or a website,’ he explained.

‘You usually have someone who presents themselves as someone who’s not in the same country, who’s not available…ex-military, aide workers…businesspeople…then that relationship forms and starts.’

He says the key point comes when at ‘some point, there is a fabricated emergency…which will require the victim to send over money’.

He warned against sending money to anyone you haven’t met in person – and encouraged online daters to use Google reverse image search, which allows you to track down a photo if it’s already online.