Woman who was blackmailed by catfish reveals she has found love with the REAL man

A woman has revealed how she avoided a viscous catfishing scam and is now in a relationship with the real man whose photos were stolen to create the fake profile used to lure her. 

Nicole Hayden, 38, from Fort Lauderdale, Florida first received a message from a man named Marcus on Instagram last year.

At first, their conservations were light-hearted but the mother-of-two soon realised the account was fake and ended the flirtation and things turned sour.

Appearing on This Morning today alongside her now boyfriend Alessandro Cinquini, Nicole explained that it ‘started horribly’ but is going well now.

Nicole was wowed by Alessandro’s hunky pictures – but soon realised he was a catfish, before finding love for real

Speaking to hosts Vernon Kay and Josie Gibson via videolink, Nicole explained: ‘It didn’t start out well.

‘It started back in October, I just replied to an Instagram DM and it ended up being a profile that was a catfisher.

‘I didn’t know straight away it was a catfish. It wasn’t until about a week later that I started to catch on. It was when he was getting really hot and heavy and telling me he loved me and wanted to marry me.

‘That’s when I realised there was something wrong. I started to think it was either at catfish profile or someone wanting things way too fast’.

Marcus also tried to scam Hayden and told her that that his mother was in the hospital and that he needed $6,000 (£4,600) for medical expenses. 

She realised that the Instagram account was a scam and didn’t send money, but he then started to blackmail her and threatened to photoshop nude photos of her and leak them online.

Appearing on This Morning today alongside her now boyfriend Alessandro Cinquini, Nicole explained that it ‘started horribly’ but is going well now.

He also threatened her children’s safety, demanding he send the cash ‘or else’. 

‘After I blocked them on Instagram they found me on WhatsApp. It was about a month later. He started threatening me and my kids on Instagram,’ she explained.

‘I didn’t give him my number, if you looked up my name in Florida you can find my name, address, voter registration number.

‘I wasn’t too scared, I was thinking he was international but I didn’t like it when he used my kids names’.

Still scared by the attempted shakedown, Hayden was trying to move on, when months later she spotted a profile of Alessandro Cinquini, an Italian man based in Florida,  – who looked exactly the same as ‘Marcus’.

Alessandro, who is originally from Italy, lives in southern Florida, works on yachts and has had his photos stolen several times 

‘I was sitting at the gas station, pumping gas, just scrolling through Instagram like everyone else does,’ she explained.

‘It was a different profile picture but I could tell it was him, and when I clicked on it I knew it was his real profile.

‘I knew it was him, he had 40,000 followers and he had a highlights section discussing all the fake profiles’.

 Alessandro explained it was ‘strange’ to receive the message from Nicole, as he gets a lot of messages from women, he was initially suspicious. 

‘She messaged me on a private page I use for fitness,’ he explained.

‘I asked her “are you real?” her profile was private and I thought, she could be a scam too.

Still scared by the attempted shakedown, Hayden was trying to move on, when months later she spotted a profile of Alessandro Cinquini (pictured), an Italian man based in Florida, – who looked exactly the same as ‘Marcus’.

‘I asked “can we video call each other?” and here we are now. 

‘It’s the sixth year my photos have been used to target women, I met Nicole and thought let’s share this story to send a message to be aware of scammers’.

Nicole admitted it’s been ‘surreal’ and that her friends can’t believe she’s dating the real Alessandro.

‘I knew just by seeing his real profile, even though I was nervous, I felt this sense of calm, I knew everything was going to be okay,’ she added.

The couple say they are now taking it ‘day by day’ and are grateful for their ‘modern’ ‘one of a kind’ situation.

‘We share the same goals and prospects in life’ Alessandro explained.