Finding true love in this 21st century on the internet isn’t an easy task as you are likely to be catfished or scammed out of thousands of dollars in the name of finding genuine love. Women are mostly the victims of such romance scams and here again, there is another Tinder Swindler — a British named Frank Adozi who has been jailed for four years for scamming a woman out of £157,000 in a romance scam.
Independence has the details of how Adozi managed to scam victims of his romance scam;
Frank Adozi, 32, from Nottingham pleaded guilty on Friday to false representation after using dating sites to dupe women out of money. His scam mimicked those seen on Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, which saw Simon Leviev allegedly scam multiple women out of thousands of pounds.
Adozi, from Nottinghamshire, tricked one victim by claiming he was working on an oil rig and had taken the wrong bank card with him. He used a fake profile on a dating website and presented himself as a middle-aged man called Michael McCarthy, police said.
Frank Adozi lived a lavish lifestyle from the money made from scamming victims of his romance scam.
One of the women who were conned had recently split from her partner and was scammed out of £157,352 over a two-month period. The woman made 34 transactions to Adozi, who she believed was “McCarthy”, and said she expected him to return the money so she could buy a house.
In a witness statement, the woman said: “He explained to me he was born in Australia and grew up in the United States. He said in 2005 he relocated to the UK to be with his wife Lisa who had now sadly died.
“He had a 13-year-old daughter Tamara who was attending a boarding school in New York. He told me he was thinking of leaving the dating site as he was worried about attracting the wrong kind of person who would just be after his money.
“He came across as a nice family man who was down-to-earth and genuine.” When the money wasn’t returned, she reported him to the police and said she had been emotionally blackmailed into sending large amounts of money.
Here is what Det Con Carl Miller of Nottinghamshire Police’s fraud investigation team had to say about Adozi’s romance scam.
“Adozi had no regard for his victims. He went to great lengths to build rapport and gain their trust, before fabricating stories to exploit them out of thousands.
“The fact that one victim lost £157,000 – money she planned to buy a house with – makes this one of the worst romance frauds we’ve ever come across. It is also a unique case in that the fraudster operated from the UK as opposed to being based overseas.
“Fraudsters like Adozi target people in vulnerable situations and have no care that they may financially ruin their victims.
“In this case, a number of victims were identified who had not contacted police. We want to encourage all those who think they’ve been a victim of romance fraud to not feel embarrassed or ashamed but rather report it.
“Romance fraud is a particularly callous offence and Nottinghamshire Police will always seek to get justice for victims. “We do this because not only do fraudsters inflict financial loss on their victims, they also cause an enormous amount of emotional hurt and pain.”
I feel bad for the people that got scammed but always wonder exactly how is it a crime when someone willingly gives you the money?
Flip to the next page for more of how he scammed them.