'My billionaire dream man was never real - and it ended up costing me £200k'
Cecilie Fjellhøy’s romance with the wealthy son of a diamond billionaire was a dream come true.
But that was until she learned her boyfriend Simon was in danger from diamond dealers who wanted to hurt him – and he needed her credit cards to get away.
Cecilie ended up being fleeced for £200,000. Her story and that of Ayleen Charlotte and Pernilla Sjöholm was told on Netflix true crime film The Tinder Swindler. They are among the many victims of romance crooks, who stole £90million last year.
Ahead of Valentine’s Day on Wednesday, figures have revealed an epidemic of romance fraud. It is when people send money to criminals who convinced them that they are in a relationship.
The women were victims of the Tinder Swindler (Joshua Wilks/Netflix)In 2023, £88,312,382 was lost, says data from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau released to the Liberal Democrats. That is nearly £242,000 a day. On average, people lose more than £10,000. Cecilie, 36, a software designer from Norway, believes the true number of victims is far higher due to stigma and embarrassment.
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She added: “They will never come forward. I was groomed by Simon. It was abuse. I lived in total fear.” Cecilie alleges she was a victim of Shimon Hayut, a convicted fraudster, from Israel, who used dating apps to meet multiple women, then set up lines of credit and loans in their names.
Going by the alias of Simon Leviev, he pretended to be a diamond dealer when Cecilie met him on Tinder in 2018. Over two months, Simon and Cecilie met 10 times. Then he told her he was making so much money off diamonds that his rivals had threatened his life.
She said: “It was traumatic. I was in love with him – so when he asked me if he could use my credit cards so they couldn’t track him down – I agreed.”
Cecilie went to police but they later dropped the case. She says: “He is still out there continuing to defraud people.” Scams are rising, with 8,608 reports of romance fraud in England and Wales last year – up 8% from 2022.
Reports involving male victims leapt by 40% between 2022 and 2023, says separate analysis by Nationwide.
The building society found women lost an average of £10,610 last year, compared to £8,181 for men. Romance scammers are also putting pressure on people to make fake insurance claims, the Insurance Fraud Bureau warned.
Emily Thornberry said fraud had shot up under the Tory Government (PA)Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, who revealed the data, said: “Finding love in the age of online dating is hard enough without the fear of being left with a broken heart and a broken bank balance.
“Thanks to this Government’s sheer incompetence and failure to crack down on online scams, fraudsters can vanish into the sunset with eye-watering sums of money while leaving a trail of devastation.”
Campaigner Anna Rowe, who set up Catch the Catfish in 2018 after being conned, said romance fraud has “rocketed” but police are responding now. Ms Rowe set up support website LoveSaid with Cecilie, who says: “We have research now to show there are similarities between domestic abuse and romance fraud. The same tactics.”
Lisa Mills, of charity Victim Support added: “We’ve supported people who have lost life-changing amounts of money but are too embarrassed to tell friends or family. Those targeted must never blame themselves.”
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No10’s Stop! Think Fraud campaign, which began on Monday, includes a website with advice and adverts online and on billboards. The Home Office said fraud accounts for 40% of crime in England and Wales, worth £6.8bn. It said: “Valentine’s Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of a deceitful crime, but romance fraud happens throughout the year.”
But Labour’s Emily Thornberry added: “Under this Tory Government there has been an almost eightfold increase in fraud, from around 400,000 offences per year to 3.2 million. Losses to the UK have grown from £38.4bn per year to £219bn.
£500,000 lost to fake Eric Clapton
When a widower was contacted by her rock idol and began an online romance, she was smitten.
But the man she had been talking to was not Eric Clapton but a scammer who conned her out of £500,000. Ruth Grover, 67, from Hartlepool, Co Durham – who was also targeted by other unscrupulous men when her husband died – fought back.
Since 2014 she has helped thousands on her Facebook page ScamHaters United. She warned: “Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and the sums being extorted are getting bigger.”
If you have been a victim of romance fraud, visit victimsupport.org.uk or call 0808 1689 111.
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