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NORTH EDITION
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roundtownnews.com
Issue 739
13-19 DEC 2013
Dating scammers target Costa Blanca WOMEN SEEKING friendship and a possible romance via the internet are being targeted by coldhearted conmen looking to make easy money. by Jack Troughton
Paul in training earlier this year
Charity pedal power PAUL RENSHAW is raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, in memory of his younger sister Joanne, by cycling from Liverpool to Benidorm. Read the full story on page 3.
THE SCAMMERS invent an attractive character and supply flattering photographs but behind the facade is a smooth-talking and professional crook looking to make a fast buck. And a growing trend is for the scammer to pretend he is living in Spain – targeting women living on the Costa Blanca. Javea businesswoman Ann Mather fell victim to the con and lost several thousand Euros – she has bravely decided to tell her story to warn other women of the dangers. She believed she was falling for an American engineer living in San Angelo, Texas. In reality, Ann was being groomed by a fraudster in Ghana. She has carried out her own research and can now spot a scam. “I have now been in communication with about 40 of these people – it is the same pattern over and over again. “They are now pretending to be living in Spain – they have obviously realised there is a market on the Costa Blanca and there are a lot of people pretending they are from Spain. They are not – they are scammers.” In April this year, her husband Bob died from pancreatic cancer. They had been married for over 30 years and Ann started to make friends with other widowed and divorced women who said they had used dating or pen pal sites.
CONTACT Within days of registering with a pen pal site, she was contacted by ‘Mackenzie Dalton’, claiming to be a US citizen with a 14-year-old son Kelvin. Photos were exchanged and contact continued through the site before moving to private emails, onto Skype and later ‘phone calls. Ann said a video call via Skype was dark and grainy and the computer kept crashing. Mackenzie claimed his accent was a ‘hodge podge’ of being Hungarian born, later living in Scotland, and America. Telephone calls increased and ‘Mackenzie’ said he was travelling to Ghana with his son for a contract involving the construction of an oil facility – telling Ann he would come to Spain on his way home. She admitted she was taken in by the increasingly personal contact – the conman declaring his love for her - and terms of endearment. “All the things a lonely lady wants to hear.” The relationship appeared to blossom but a week before ‘Mackenzie’ was due to arrive he called to say he had reached his credit card limit paying customs and suppliers and needed cash to live. It was the sting. Ann made some checks but advanced the cash to a bank account. Calls continued until the night before he was due to arrive in Spain.“He ‘phoned me to tell me it was all a scam.” Continued on page 8