Ex-romance scammer tells how he conned dozens of women to fund ‘lavish’ lifestyle – and what tricks to look out for

Published

1 year ago

February 9, 2024

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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.

“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 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.”

How to avoid falling victim to a romance scam?

According to Detective Constable Rebecca Mason, from Surrey Police, the “ABC of online dating” is “assume nothing; believe no-one and confirm everything”. Her advice includes:

• Never send money to someone you haven’t met as the likelihood is, it’s a scam

• If someone seems too good to be true they often are. Trust your gut

• If you have arranged a face-to-face meeting with the person and they keep cancelling, they probably aren’t who they say they are

• Be careful with what personal information you share such as answers to your security questions. Fraudsters will often ask for your home address to send gifts or flowers

• Be wary – you could be speaking to anyone on the end of the phone

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.

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.”

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.”

World

Inside a NATO base in Poland – as residents bordering Russia say ‘scare tactic’ is needed

Published

4 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Inside a NATO base in Poland - as residents bordering Russia say 'scare tactic' is needed

Along the thin strip of beach and woodland known as the Vistula Spit which marks the northernmost demarcation between Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, there is not much in the way of a border.

Just some torn wire fencing and a few rotten posts which seem to stagger drunkenly into the shallows of the Baltic Sea.

Beneath a sign barring entry, we find a couple of empty bottles of Russian cognac and vodka.

It doesn’t feel like the edge of NATO territory.

“I don’t see much protection. It’s not good,” says Krzysztof from Katowice, who has come to inspect the border himself.

“We have to have some kind of scare tactic, something to show that we are trying to strengthen our army,” says Grzegorz, who lives nearby.

“At the same time I think I would not base the defence of our country solely on our army. I am convinced that Europe or America, if anything were to happen, will help us 100%.”

Poland is investing massively in its defence, with military spending set to hit 4.7% of GDP in 2025, more than any other NATO country.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he will introduce voluntary military training for men of any age, and women too should they wish, so the army has a competent reserve force in the event of war.

He is investing $2.5bn in stronger border fortifications between Russia and Belarus, a project called East Shield which will include anti-tank obstacles, bunkers and potentially minefields too.

Along with its Baltic neighbours, Poland is withdrawing from the Ottawa convention against the use of land mines. It hasn’t committed to using them, but it wants to have that option.

We’ve been granted access to one of the cornerstones of Polish, and European defence, which is a couple of hours drive from the Vistula spit at the Redowicze military base.

Aegis Ashore Poland, together with its sister site in Romania, are the land-based arms of NATO’s missile defence shield over Europe, which is run by the US navy.

They are symbols of the US commitment to NATO and to the protection of Europe.

And despite changes at the top of the Pentagon it is “business as usual”, says Captain Michael Dwan who oversees air and missile defence within the US Sixth Fleet.

“Our mission to work with NATO forces has been unchanged. And so our commitment from the United States perspective and what capability we bring to ballistic missile defence and the defence of NATO is championed here in Poland.”

As far as Russia is concerned, NATO’s two missile defence bases in Romania and Poland represent a NATO threat on their doorstep and are therefore a “priority target for potential neutralisation”, per Russia’s foreign ministry.

NATO says the installations are purely defensive and their SM-3 interceptor missiles are not armed and are not intended to carry warheads. Russia counters they could easily be adapted to threaten Russia.

Not the case, Captain Dwan says.

“It’s not a matter of moving offensive weapons here into the facility, the hardware and the infrastructure is simply not installed.

“It would take months or years to change the mission of this site and a significant amount of money and capability and design.”

With so much marked “secret” on the site, it seems amazing to be granted the access.

But for NATO, transparency is part of deterrence. They want potential adversaries to know how sophisticated their radar and interception systems are.

They know that if they carried warheads on site, that would make them a target so they don’t.

Deterrence also depends on whether potential adversaries believe in the US’s commitment to NATO and to Europe’s defence.

On an operational level, as far as the troops are concerned, that commitment may still be iron-clad.

But as far as its commander-in-chief goes, there is still – as with so much around Donald Trump’s presidency – a great deal of uncertainty.

In the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon President Trump suggested he might bundle a potential US troop drawdown in Europe together with the issue of EU trade and tariffs.

“Nice to wrap it up in one package,” he said, “it’s nice and clean”.

Probably not the way Europe sees it, not with a resurgent Russia on their doorstep, economic tailwinds breeding animosity and the notion of Pax Americana crumbling at their feet.

World

Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries – despite increasing those on China to 125%

Published

10 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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Asianmarkets bounce back after Trump pauses higher tariffs for most countries - despite increasing those on China to 125%

Asian markets have reacted positively after Donald Trump paused his so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on most of America’s trading partners for 90 days, despite the US president increasing those on China to 125%.

There have been fears of a global recession and stock markets around the world had plummeted after Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on Wednesday 2 April.

However, Japan’s Nikkei share average was up 8.2% by 3.50am BST, while the broader Topix had risen 7.5%.

Similarly, the S&P 500 stock index had jumped 9.5% and global markets bounced back following Mr Trump’s announcement on Wednesday that the increased tariffs on nearly all trading partners would now be paused.

Tariffs latest: Trump gives reasons for pausing some tariffs

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Mr Trump said the “90-day pause” was for the “more than 75 countries” who had not retaliated against his tariffs “in any way”.

He added that during this period they would still have to pay a “substantially lowered” 10% tariff, which is “effective immediately”.

It is lower than the 20% tariff that Mr Trump had set for goods from the European Union, 24% on imports from Japan and 25% on products from South Korea.

The UK was already going to face a blanket 10% tariff under the new system.

Mr Trump said the increased 125% tariff on imported goods from China was “effective immediately”.

He added: “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realise that the days of ripping off the USA, and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.”

What’s in Trump’s tariff pause?

Here’s what Donald Trump’s tariff pause entails:

‘Reciprocal’ tariffs on hold

• Higher tariffs that took effect today on 57 trading partners will be paused for 90 days

• These include the EU, Japan and South Korea, all of which will face a baseline 10% duty instead

• Countries that already had a 10% levy imposed since last week – such as the UK – aren’t affected by the pause

China tariffs increased

• Trump imposed a higher 125% tariff on China

• That’s in addition to levies he imposed during his first term

• China had hit the US with 84% tariff earlier today, following tit-for-tat escalations

No change for Canada or Mexico

• Canadian and Mexican goods will remain subject to 25% fentanyl-related tariffs if they don’t comply with the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement’s rules of origin

• Compliant goods are exempt

Car and metal tariffs remain

• Trump’s pause doesn’t apply to the 25% tariffs he levied on steel and aluminium in March and on cars (autos) on 3 April

• This 25% tariff on car parts does not come into effect until 3 May

Sectors at risk

• Copper, lumber, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals are expected to be subject to separate tariffs, in the same way autos are

Hours after Mr Trump announced the pause on tariffs for most countries, a White House official clarified that this did not apply to the 25% duties imposed on some US imports from Mexico and Canada.

The tariffs were first announced in February and Mexico and Canada were not included in the “Liberation Day” announcements.

Hours before the 125% tariff on China was revealed, Beijing said it was increasing tariffs on US goods by 50%.

It meant tariffs of 84% would be enforced on US goods – up from the 34% China had previously planned.

China ‘want to make a deal’

Asked why he posted “BE COOL” on Truth Social hours before announcing his tariff pause, Mr Trump told reporters at the White House: “I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line.”

“They were getting yippy, you know, were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid,” he added.

Mr Trump continued: “China wants to make a deal, they just don’t know how to go about it.

“[They’re] quite the proud people, and President Xi is a proud man. I know him very well, and they don’t know quite how to go about it, but they’ll figure it out.

“They’re in the process of figuring out, but they want to make a deal.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the walk back was part of a grand negotiating strategy by Mr Trump.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” she said, adding that the news media “clearly failed to see what President Trump is doing here”.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also insisted Mr Trump had strengthened his hand through his tariffs.

“President Trump created maximum negotiating leverage for himself,” he said.

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Mr Bessent said Mr Trump decided to raise tariffs on China because Beijing hadn’t reached out to the US and instead increased its own levies on US goods.

Downing Street said that the UK will “coolly and calmly” continue its negotiations with the US.

A Number 10 spokeswoman said: “A trade war is in nobody’s interests. We don’t want any tariffs at all, so for jobs and livelihoods across the UK, we will coolly and calmly continue to negotiate in Britain’s interests.”