A pair from South London contain scammed 80 folks, most of whom were homosexual men, out of over £140,000 ($249,000) in a centered romance fraud arrangement.

Fredrick Diji and his partner, probation officer Raquel Johnson, posed as singles in want of cash on dating sites. The couple feeble a vary of spurious personas to target victims by means of on-line dating sites, alongside side Match and Gaydar.

The pair ‘worship bombed’, showering their victims with attention and affection in an try and contain their believe, before asking them for money for a series of unfounded reasons.

In one event, the couple had even conned one man out of over £100,000 ($178,000) for a length of 14 years, across the account for 16-year fraud operation.

As reported by MyLondon, Diji feeble spurious profiles and contacted single folks over the telephone or by means of texts, making his victims feel as if they were talking to somebody exact.

He would also exercise excuses alongside side being held up by Dutch customs while attempting to come assist to the UK and that he wanted financial toughen to be released from kidnappers, and that his sick mother had died and wanted money to befriend pay for the charges of her funeral and contain accumulate entry to to his inheritance.

In some instances, Diji had sent solid documents (death certificates, scoot documentation and ID documents) to show his identity before forcing victims to transfer money into his yarn.

Investigation Into Romance Fraud

In step with Surrey Residethe investigation into the couple’s romance fraud arrangement started after a Surrey victim came ahead in 2020 and officers were in a put to impress bank transfers made by the victim straight to the pair’s door.

Several devices were seized from their dwelling tackle, and officers chanced on evidence that proved the pair had been sharing yarn logins and concocting up reports to deceive their most up-to-date victims. The spurious documents were also chanced on on devices seized by police from the couple’s dwelling in Camberwell, Southeast London, and officers also uncovered evidence of cash laundering by tracing bank transfers between multiple accounts.

Surrey Police labored with the Metropolis of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau and known a extra 179 victims for the duration of the investigation. Many of these victims were homosexual men, older folks or folks plagued by poor effectively being.

Police chanced on 80 of these victims were linked to romance fraud, 22 to investment fraud and 77 had their identities or bank main functions stolen or shared. Proof of cash laundering modified into also chanced on by tracing bank transfers between multiple accounts.

In total, over £400,000 ($712,000) modified into chanced on to were laundered by means of their bank accounts.

Romance Fraudsters Arrested and Sentenced

Guildford Crown Court docket sentenced each and each Diji and Johnson to a mixed total of 11 years and nine months imprisonment for their romance fraud arrangement.

Diji pleaded responsible to conspiracy to defraud, concealing criminal property and possession of an identity doc for defective plan, and modified into sentenced to eight years. Johnson modified into sentenced to some years and nine months after pleading responsible to 1 depend of cash laundering.

Take hold of Robert Fraser condemned the couple for executing a “truly callous conspiracy of grand scale.”

Specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service Jane Mitchell, mentioned “Romance fraud is a horrendous crime and the value to individual victims goes effectively previous financial loss. It is depraved that Diji centered men either thanks to their sexuality, age, or poor effectively being as a plan to defraud them.”

“The victims in this case were procuring for proper worship and companionship and Diji acted with greed and callousness to set abet and emotionally manipulate them, persuading them at surrender their money… We are in a position to be pursuing the defendants’ criminal positive aspects by means of the Proceeds of Crime Act,” Mitchell mentioned.

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