Divorcee is scammed out of £4,000 by Nigerian 'fiancé' who proposed one month after they met online - telling her he needed the cash so he could be with her in the UK
Sixty-something Sheila appeared on Channel 5's Secrets Of The Scammers
Said it was 'love at first sight' when she saw 'Glen' on dating website
He told her he was in the military and based in Afghanistan
Agreed to marry him a month later when he proposed on Valentine's Day
Then sent him £4,000 he said he needed to set up business in UK
Was devastated when she learned he was actually a scammer from Nigeria
By Lucy Waterlow for MailOnline
Published: 16:51, 4 November 2015 | Updated: 16:51, 4 November 2015
A divorcée in her sixties has revealed how she was duped by an online con artist who targeted her through a reputable dating website.
The woman, revealed only as Sheila, told Channel 5 show Secrets Of The Scammers how she was contacted by a man claiming to be called Glen Almond and got caught up in a whirlwind romance.
She ended up giving away £4,000 before she discovered she was the victim of an elaborate scam based in Nigeria. Even to this day, Sheila has no idea who she was actually talking to or where her money went.
Sheila admits she fell head over heels with a man she met online after he sent her handsome photos and romantic messages. She believed he was real and they would live 'happily ever after'
She had believed Glen was who he claimed to be when he first contacted her online and sent her his picture.
She said: 'As soon as I opened the email and saw his photo it was love at first sight, we spent time chatting with emails going backwards and forwards getting to know each other. He was very charming and romantic.'
Glen told Sheila he was a captain in the Canadian Navy and was a widow currently based in Afghanistan as a medical doctor working in a field hospital.
'So there was a genuine reason why we couldn't meet,' said Sheila, who had been looking for love again following the end of her marriage and had hoped to find it using dating websites.
Via email, her romance with Glen quickly blossomed and she was delighted when he popped the question - only a month after he first contacted her.
She recalled: He proposed on Valentine's Day, it was so romantic. I thought "yes!".'
She admits she knows it was rash but 'you get to my age and time isn't on our side anymore, you can't be pussy-footing around like young teenagers so I said yes.'
Sheila agreed to marry Glen after he proposed in an email even though they had never met. She then transferred £4,000 to him so he could set up a business when they started their life together
The couple then started planning their future together. Glen told Sheila his time in Afghanistan could be coming to an end in a matter of weeks and he would move to the UK to be with her.
He said he planned to set up his own business there importing goods from the Far East.
Sheila said: 'We were planning to walk off into the sunset hand-in-hand and live happily ever after.'
But Glen told Sheila that in order for his business to be a success, he needed her help financially. He said a payment had to be made right away in order for them to get the goods he needed from a supplier - and that he couldn't make the transaction from Afghanistan.
Sheila said she didn't know anything about his business but 'I thought we were to be a husband and wife team and I would support him in any way I could.
'He told me our whole future was at stake if he didn't pay and we risked losing everything.'
Desperate to help the man she loved, Sheila was able to sell some shares and delve into her savings to give £4,000 in total to Glen.
She also put her house on the market so they would have some money to buy a new place together.
It was only thanks to sharing her excitement over the plan with a prospective buyer that she discovered she had been conned.
She recalled: 'As I was showing prospective buyers around my house I was so excited as Glen was due to be coming home tomorrow. I couldn't help telling them all about it and showed them Glen's picture on my laptop.'
The prospective buyer was a former soldier himself and was suspicious of Sheila's situation.
Sheila was sent this picture by 'Glen', who she believed was a medic in the Canadian Navy based in Afghanistan. Claiming to be a military man is a common ruse used by scammers as it makes them attractive to women and provides a plausible explanation as to why they are unable to meet
After doing some research of his own, his fears were confirmed and he contacted Sheila and told her she had been duped.
Sheila said :'The moment I found out it was a fake profile and it wasn't for real I was emotionally devastated. My whole world fell apart.
'I contacted the police who found I was one of hundreds of victims of this professional, international scam and they traced it back to Nigeria.
'I have no idea to this day who I was corresponding with. Someone out there in the world was writing these emails and I have no idea who it was.'
Alexis Conran, presenter of Secret Of The Scammers, was able to track down a reformed Nigerian con artist who was part of a team perating dating scams like that experienced by Sheila.
The remorseful scammer called Kingsley admitted that divorcees were deliberately targetted because they are often emotionally vulnerable and easy to manipulate.
He said: 'I mostly made money through romance scams, we would pretend to be interested in dating them and along the line we con them out of money using various methods.
Presenter Alexis Conran, pictured, spoke to a former Nigerian dating scammer who said they often targeted divorcée as they were more vulnerable and easier to manipulate
'We are looking for someone who is divorced as there is always an emotional attachment, they feel some sort of emptiness.'
He said they would send the woman a picture of a handsome man they would 'fall for' and concoct a back story about their life. He said they often pretended to have a military background as this is attractive to women and gives them a plausible reason why they can't meet.
He said: 'Most women say they want security and someone with a good job. One of the best jobs we believe is in the military and with a military man you can say you are travelling. It is a game of emotions.'
He added that you have to dedicate time to each 'mark' and he would only be in contact with a maximum of five women at a time so his lies didn't get confused.
'The more time you spend on them the more attached they become and then the sooner you will get money, sometimes it is only between one and three months,' he said.
'If you want to stay organised I would limit it to between one and five, when you are lying to them you don't want to forget anything.'
Kingsley admitted he is now sorry for what he has done and is no longer working as a scammer and regrets duping women out of their life savings.
He said: 'A lot of people have been permanently damaged and some will not recover, if I had the chance to undo everything I would.'
Secrets Of The Scammers is on Channel 5 Wednesdays at 7pm
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