Ex-romance scammer tells how he conned dozens of women to fund ‘lavish’ lifestyle – and warns potential victims of tricks
Hiding behind the picture of a handsome American soldier stolen from a real Instagram account, Chris Maxwell would try to make women fall in love with him online.
The 25-year-old Nigerian says he conned up to 30 victims out of more than $70,000 (£56,000) over five years, enjoying “lavish” spending on nights out in clubs and designer clothes.
“When I was doing this, I used to think about people – I used to feel guilty,” he tells Sky News.
“I used to feel bad but as time goes on and I started making good money – big money – I stopped feeling bad.”
Reports of romance fraud are on the rise in the UK, with victims conned out of more than £88m last year, according to latest figures.
Chris says he became a scammer while he was a student aged 17 and would approach strangers in the US, UK, Canada and Germany on social media.
Chris says he became a romance scammer aged 17. Pic: Chris Maxwell
“I start on common ground – I make sure they like me,” he says.
“I make sure they trust me so much and tell me anything – they can trust me, they can confide in me.
“After that, I start going in a relationship with them and that’s how I start my scam.”
One American woman – who he contacted online and spoke to for a year – handed over more than $30,000 (£24,000), says Chris.
“After she gave me the money, she became sick,” he says.
“She became depressed and wanted to see who I actually am.
“I did something really, really bad. I started felling guilty because she’s sick.
“I showed her my face, she cried but she forgave me.”
Romance scammer guide leaked
Chris says he was arrested in Nigeria but never charged over his romance scams – and knows of others who have “served time”.
None of the money was returned to his victims but he insists he’s now “living a good life” after the American woman introduced him to Social Catfish, a company which helps identify fraudsters by verifying online identities through reverse search technology. Chris now works as a consultant for the firm.
Since turning his back on a life of crime, he says he has leaked a 40-page step-by-step guide entitled How To Make A White Woman Fall In Love With You From Online Chat that is used by scammers.
The manual includes tips on carrying out romance scams, says Chris. Pic: Social Catfish
The handbook – which advises scammers to target women over the age of 40 – details how to carry out research from their social media profiles, suggesting finding out about “her hobbies, her pets, job, passion, if she has kids, age, where she lives, what she loves etc”.
Would-be fraudsters are told to make an approach using the information gathered or pick from “a list of 100 pickup lines that work every time”, including: “Life without you would be like a broken pencil… pointless”.
There are tips for carrying out a conversation, such as using a grammar app to avoid mistakes, a series of questions to ask and even “100 of the best jokes that will get her cracking her ribs” as “getting a woman to laugh is one of the fastest ways to make her like you”.
The guide recommends compliments, and again there is a list of suggestions, and tells scammers to wait at least a week before asking for money, which should not be done “directly”.
“When she asks about your day you can tell her it was bad,” the guide says.
“Then tell her you are broke, you are behind your mortgage and they will kick you out next week and you have exhausted every means to get money. By herself, she will offer to give you money.”
Romance scam reports increased by more than a fifth (22%) last year compared with 2022, according to data from Lloyds Bank, which said the average amount lost by a victim was nearly £7,000.
Victims aged 65 to 74 tended to lose more money on average, with the figure at more than £13,000, Lloyds said.
Detective Constable Rebecca Mason, from Surrey Police, says people who write they are “widowed, divorced or lonely” in online profiles can be seen as a target but “anyone can be a victim of romance scams” – and often gay males are disproportionately targeted.
Victims are more likely to be male, while the highest number of people scammed in the UK last year were aged in their 20s, according to figures released by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.
There were more than 8,600 reports of romance scams in the UK last year – including 11 victims who were under the age of 10 and 12 victims aged 90 or over, the data shows.
Read more:
Romance fraudster posed as Nicolas Cage for con
Victim of serial fraudster demands £750k back
Grandmother takes on ‘cruel’ romance fraudsters
Romance scammers using AI
DC Mason says fraudsters look to exploit the surge in the use of dating apps in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.
She warns that AI technology is enabling fraudsters to create a whole new identity and image.
“They can video call using this AI technology which can make them seem real,” she tells Sky News.
“People are now becoming more confident to speak up and report it to Action Fraud or the police. However, it is still a very under-reported crime.
“The change has come with online dating being a lot more accepted than it perhaps once was a few years ago.”
Pic: iStock
Wayne Stevens, national fraud lead at the charity Victim Support, says romance fraud is “very common” and people can be more vulnerable to the “devastating crime” as they search for friendship or romance online around Valentine’s Day.
“There’s a common misconception that romance fraud – and fraud in general – only affects older people,” he adds.
“In reality, fraudsters are highly skilled opportunists who will exploit people when they are at their lowest and craving companionship, making it easy for anyone to become a victim.”
UK
More prisoners are being transferred to less secure jails to tackle overcrowding crisis, Sky News understands
The prison service is starting to recategorise the security risk of offenders to ease capacity pressures, Sky News understands.
It involves lowering or reconsidering the threshold of certain offenders to move them from the closed prison estate (category A to C) to the open estate (category D) because there are more free cell spaces there.
Examples of this could include discounting adjudications – formal hearings when a prisoner is accused of breaking the rules – for certain offenders, so they don’t act as official reasons not to transport them to a lower-security jail.
Prisoners are also categorised according to an Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) status. There are different levels – basic, standard and enhanced – based on how they keep to the rules or display a commitment to rehabilitation.
Usually ‘enhanced’ prisoners take part in meaningful activity – employment and training – making them eligible among other factors, to be transferred to the open estate.
Insiders suggest this system in England and Wales is being rejigged so that greater numbers of ‘standard’ prisoners can transfer, whereas before it would more typically be those with ‘enhanced’ status.
Open prisons have minimal security and allow eligible prisoners to spend time on day release away from the prison on license conditions to carry out work or education.
The aim is to help reintegrate them back into society once they leave. As offenders near the end of their sentence, they are housed in open prisons.
Many of those released as part of the early release scheme in October after serving 40% of their sentence were freed from open prisons.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Overcrowding in UK prisons
They were the second tranche of offenders freed as part of this scheme, and had been sentenced to five years or more.
Despite early release measures, prisons are still battling a chronic overcrowding crisis. The male estate is almost full, operating at around 97% capacity.
Read more from Sky News:
Find out what it’s really like inside prison?
Prison recalls soar as justice system struggles
Campaigners demand IPP sentences are scrapped
Sky News understands there continue to be particular pinch points across the country.
Southwest England struggled over the weekend with three space-related ‘lockouts’ – which means prisoners are held in police suites or transferred to other jails because there is no space.
One inmate is believed to have been transported from Exeter to Cardiff.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The new government inherited a prison system on the point of collapse. We took the necessary action to stop our prisons from overflowing and to protect the public.
“This is not a new scheme. Only less-serious offenders who meet a strict criteria are eligible, and the Prison Service can exclude anyone who can’t be managed safely in a category D prison.”
UK
Prisoner driven to psychosis after stealing mobile phone unable to undergo health test ‘due to lack of staff’
A prisoner who has served 12 years in jail for stealing a mobile phone was unable to attend a psychiatric assessment because of a lack of staff, his family claims.
According to psychiatrists, Thomas White has developed psychosis as a direct result of being handed a controversial indefinite jail term called imprisonment for public protection (IPP), which was abolished in 2012.
His sister has been campaigning for over a year to have him transferred to a hospital, which would require him to receive sign-off from two separate psychiatrists.
Ms White said her brother, who experiences religious hallucinations, was placed in segregation and needed three prison staff to release him from his cell – but they were not available due to staff shortages.
Thomas White pictured with his sister Clara White and their mother Margaret at Manchester prison
Politics latest: PM ‘may have heeded warning’ from Trump’s victory
Sky News understands that Lord Blunkett, the former Labour home secretary who introduced the IPP sentence but now campaigns for reform, has asked prisons minister Lord Timpson to investigate.
What are IPP sentences?
Thomas White, now aged 40, was one of more than 8,000 offenders who were given an IPP sentence – a type of open-ended prison sentence the courts could impose from 2005 until they were scrapped.
The sentence – which has been described as a form of “psychological torture” by human rights experts – was intended for serious violent and sexual offenders who posed a significant risk of serious harm to the public but whose crimes did not warrant a life term.
Although the government’s stated aim was public protection, concerns quickly grew that IPP sentences were being applied too broadly and catching more minor offenders, partly due to the fact that previous convictions were taken into account when determining whether someone posed a “significant risk”.
Thomas was sentenced to two years for stealing the mobile phone in a non-violent exchange back in 2012 – but because he had 16 previous convictions for theft and robberies, he was given an IPP sentence and has served 12 years.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
What is an IPP sentence?
The coalition government scrapped the sentence in 2012, but the change was not applied retrospectively, meaning 2,852 prisoners remain behind bars – including 1,227 who have never been released.
The new government is under increasing pressure to act on the IPP crisis given they were introduced by Lord Blunkett – who has since said he feels “deep regret” about the way the sentence was used.
‘My brother is being seriously failed’
In an email to Lord Blunkett, seen by Sky News, Ms White said: “My brother had a psychiatric appointment on the 1 November to see if he could be admitted to an outside hospital as he has to have two signatures to be transferred to an outside hospital.
“The system is nothing but criminal – people like my brother are being seriously failed.
“We waited a long time to have Thomas assessed again by the psychiatrist. We more than likely won’t get the assessment again.”
Read more:
11 years for stealing a mobile phone: Inside the lives of IPP prisoners
The £1bn cost of keeping people in prison on indeterminate IPP sentences
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Inside the lives of IPP prisoners
James Frith, the Labour MP for Bury North, said: “Thomas’ case highlights why these sentences were abolished over a decade ago.
“Thomas’s indefinite imprisonment has had a hugely detrimental impact on his mental and physical wellbeing. Thomas should be a patient, not a prisoner.
“We know the prison system is underfunded and overcapacity, but this is no excuse for failing Thomas. I have been working with Clara, Thomas’ sister, and I have written to the Lord Chancellor to raise Thomas’s case and the wider issues of IPPs.
“Thomas has been denied appropriate assessment and care for too long, we will not give up this fight for what is right.”
The Ministry of Justice does not comment on individual medical cases.
It is understood Lord Timpson will respond to Lord Blunkett in due course.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports8 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Environment1 year agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway