One of the women drawn-in by a con artist using a happily married gay man’s photos on a dating website has said he must do it because he hates women.
The 60-year-old PR consultant from south west London, who does not want to be named, said she began talking to a man claiming to be Martin Petersen at the end of January on Zoosk.
He initially claimed to be Danish-American but was living in Hendon in Barnet, north west London, but within two weeks he had ‘moved’ to Bahrain.
She quickly became suspicious because his photos from the poolside had deciduous trees in the background, and in others, his wedding ring was visible.
A 60-year-old PR consultant from south west London has come forward to say she has been duped by a con artist using Steve Bustin’s photos (pictured) on a dating website
The man, who said his named was Martin Petersen, contacted her on Zoosk and claimed he had moved to Bahrain but got into a car accident
The con artist used the above dating profile to lure women, and claimed he was ‘romantic and affectionate’ and ‘passionate about traveling’
He then told her an elaborate story about how he had been in a car accident in the country and had hit two people – one of which ended up in the ICU.
Just ten days ago ‘Martin’ sent her to a fake banking website and asked her to check his balance and transfer money so he could complete an out of court settlement.
She told the MailOnline: ‘I just wanted to see where it went, he hadn’t asked me for money but this week because I was aware of what was going on I said “can I offer you some money?”
‘He said yes that would be great, can I have $6,000, but then quickly upped it to $8,000.
‘I think for him to do something like that, I think he must hate women, that’s the only conclusion.
‘There’s something in his psyche to psychologically abuse them, and financially abuse them, I don’t know about being lonely. There’s a lot of thought that goes into this.’
Speaking about her experience in order to warn other women, she said: ‘I think for him to do something like that, I think he must hate women, that’s the only conclusion’
The woman has since spoken to action fraud who said the scam is typical. However, the con artist never directly asked her for money (pictured: two of the messages ‘Martin’ sent to her)
She has since approached Action Fraud with his phone number and details of what he said to her.
In some photos that appeared after she added the scammer’s number on Telegram, name tags were clearly visible for Steve Bustin – the real man behind the photos.
Last week Mr Bustin came forward to warn other women that his photos were being used by a con artist on several dating websites.
He first discovered his photos were being used on dating websites such as EliteSingles back in July 2016 when a woman from Berlin contacted him.
Mr Bustin, a former BBC News producer who now works as a public speaker, told The Sunday Times he was choosing to go public now to ‘devalue’ his photos and hopefully stop the scammer, or scammers, for good.
He said: ‘Someone has been harvesting images of me from all over the web.’
Several women have since come forward to talk about the men they have been talking to on Zoosk and other dating websites using Mr Bustin’s photos.
A 58-year-old teacher from west London spoke to a man claiming to be Martin Hansen for three weeks last month.
The real man in the photos, Steve Bustin, pictured right with his husband John, is a happily married man and has never used a dating website
He came forward last week to warn women that his photos were being used on fake profiles across the web in order to ‘devalue’ them
She said that he also claimed to be Danish-American, and that he had just moved over to south Africa where he had bought an oil rig.
After a week or so of talking he claimed that there had been an explosion on the rig and that three people had been severely injured and fallen into a coma.
He also said he had his card stolen and his passport had been taken, and he was in a really bad way.
She also noted that the scammer never directly asked her for money, but believed he was ‘leading up to it’.
She said: ‘I’ve never sent money to anyone but I can see why people would. In a funny kind of way you do think you’re talking to this guy, the conversations are so real, you think you’re talking to Martin Hansen.
‘I can see why women want to pretend it’s still real, they’re so charming. He sounded so genuine and interested on the phone, you do want to believe it.
‘I’m wary now and I never was before. I’m thinking are they out to scam me? Most of them have been lovely, really nice guys, and I will continue online dating but I will be a lot more wary, it’s taught me to trust my guts.
‘If you think it’s too good to be true, it probably is.’
Since publishing the story the MailOnline have been approached by four separate women who claim to have spoken to a man using Mr Bustin’s photo, bringing the total number of known victims to seven.
A spokesperson for Zoosk said: ‘The stories of victims who have lost money to romance scams are all heartbreaking. And those aren’t the only victims: when a scammer infiltrates an online dating community, every member of that community who becomes exposed to him has a degraded user experience.
‘The people whose photographs are stolen to create fictitious personas on social media and dating sites are, of course, also victims.
‘That is why we take incidents like this very seriously, and why we try to lead the online dating industry in the fight against romance scammers.
Like all reputable dating sites, Zoosk monitors usage patterns, prevents many fraudulent accounts from being created, and blocks users with suspicious behavior. But these measures are not foolproof.
‘We believe awareness – when paired with the right authenticity tools to empower our customers – is the most effective line of defense against scammers.
‘In 2014, Zoosk became the first major dating site to offer profile photo verification. Users can choose to verify their profile pictures by taking a video selfie of themselves with one of our mobile apps – a human moderator then compares the video to the profile photos.
‘Photo verification makes it hard for con artists to impersonate someone whose photographs they stole online.’
Action Fraud have been contacted for comment.
The 46-year-old is going public to ‘devalue’ his photos and try to stop the scammers for good
The tricksters have used photos of Mr Bustin from Halloween (pictured) and ones of him on holiday