A mother of an autistic schoolgirl who was knocked unconscious at a skate park has lashed out at “disgusting” scammers who set up a fundraising campaign on her daughter’s behalf.

Angela Jarvis, 44, from Drumchapel, Glasgow, said she was made ‘sick’ by a fake GoFundMe page that was brought to her attention last week but has since been removed.

The page, which has now been deleted, asked people for donations to raise a total of £1,000 to help 14-year-old Abbie recover from the attack that happened just over a year ago.

Speaking to the Daily record Angela said: ‘Someone was sitting there, saw Abbie’s story and thought it would be a good idea to make money from it.

“On top of everything else Abbie has been through, things like this torture her. She just wants to move on from her past, but she can’t because she is constantly reminded of what happened to her.’

In 2022, Abbie made headlines when shocking images of her bloodied face showed the extent of her injuries.

The then 12-year-old was lured to a park in the city’s Drumchapel, where a 13-year-old attacked her with multiple kicks to the head, leaving her covered in blood, while other teenagers filmed the attack on their phones.

Abbie spent two days in hospital and is now suffering from PTSD after the violent attack and school suspension.

The fake GoFundMe page, written by the scammers pretending to be Abbie, read: “Thank you if you donated. This fundraiser is to help with my education and anxiety after this attack, no this is not for a lot of money, this is for my mental health. Thank you very much.’

A GoFundMe spokesperson told FEMAIL: “GoFundMe does not tolerate misuse of our platform. No money was raised. The fundraiser has been removed and the account has been banned.”

They added: ‘GoFundMe is the only platform of its kind with a donation guarantee – meaning all donations go to the right place or can be refunded.’

Following the attack, Abbie’s mother launched a petition to tackle the disturbing culture of youth violence in Scotland. This petition is currently being considered in Parliament.

Speak with The mirror in 2022 Angela said: ‘We are not sure if she will go back to school, she is very anxious and scared. I wanted to go back to work, but I have to keep her safe.

‘Her whole life has completely changed. Even when she was walking to the shops, she would grab my arm and say, “Mommy, don’t leave my side.” I’m her bodyguard now, so she can feel safe.”

In 2022, a police spokesperson said: ‘A 13-year-old girl has been arrested and charged following the alleged serious assault of a 12-year-old girl on Southdeen Avenue near Southdeen Park, Drumchapel, Glasgow, on Tuesday 4 October. .

‘She has been released on an undertaking to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court at a later date. A report has been submitted for consideration by the Procurator Fiscal and the Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration.”

The Delhi Police has termed this new modus operandi of ‘digital house arrest’ perpetrated by cyber criminals as a serious concern, which will allow the scammers to easily extort money from the victims once someone is trapped in their vicious circle.

Delhi News: Delhi Police has urged citizens to remain vigilant about a new scam being perpetrated by cyber criminals known as ‘digital house arrest’, stating that in the recent past, more than 200 such cases have been registered every month in the national capital.

Senior officials have termed this modus operandi of cybercriminals as a serious concern, which makes it easy for the scammers to extort money from the victims once someone is trapped in their vicious circle.

What is ‘Digital house arrest’?

According to Delhi Police, ‘digital house arrest’ refers to a fraud in which impostors posing as law enforcement officers fool victims into believing that their bank account, SIM card, Aadhaar card or other cards linked to their bank account are illegitimate used.

The scammers then virtually stop the victims from leaving the house and force them to pay money, an officer said.

“Digital house arrest has become a major problem nowadays. However, our special unit investigates only those cases where the fraudulent amount exceeds Rs 50 lakh,” said a senior police officer from the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of Delhi Police, according to news agency PTI.

Recent cases

Giving an example of a recent case, the officer said: “A man was getting ready for his office on December 30 last year when he received a call at around 8.43am. The caller took down his name and said he was speaking from the Mumbai crime branch. He told the victim that his Aadhar card was used to transport drugs in courier parcels seized by the crime branch.

The suspect also started interrogating him, causing fear in the victim. They also asked the victim not to leave his house for about 8 hours during the “interrogation,” the officer said.

“The victim told police he heard voices from behind, voices that sounded like wireless police radio transmissions. Later, the suspect asked him to download a Skype application and gain remote access to the desktop. A man appeared before him in police fatigues, interrogated him for hours and asked the victim to show his bank account details to see if he had received ‘foreign money’. In the meantime, they hacked his system and completely emptied his account,” the officer said.

The complainant later filed an FIR and the police are further investigating the matter.

Scammers using fake letterheads

Another police officer said several such cases have been recorded in the National Capital Region recently, with more than 200 cases recorded every month.

These fraudsters use better English translation tools to send threatening letters and forge police department letterheads. They usually buy Aadhar cards from other sources, the officer said.

“They usually target old people. In such situations, the victims should immediately call the police helpline numbers to report the matter and get help,” the officer said.

The officer said such ‘cyber criminals’ are technically sound and know how to convince their targets and drain their hard-earned money.

Cybercrime is on the rise in Delhi

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) report, cybercrime cases in the national capital will almost double by 2022.

The number of such cases has increased from 345 in 2021 to 685 cases in 2022, the NCRB’s comprehensive crime data for 2022 shows.

In 2020, the number was much lower, with only 166 cases of cybercrime, it added.

(With PTI inputs)

A WOMAN has told how sick 'spoofing' scammers went on the Louis Vuitton wave, gambling and taking out loans after stealing £50,000 from her bank account.

Sharna Williams fell victim to a scam where scammers change the way their phone number appears on your screen to make it look legitimate.

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By the time she found out what was going on, the scammers had already spent as much as £50,000.

Sharna told the Sheffield star: “Scammers 'spoofed' the bank's number by taking over my accounts, savings and taking out personal loans.

“They visited Louis Vuitton and gambled in my name many times.”

Sharna's ordeal began in October when she received a call from someone saying they were from HSBC.

The caller said they suspected fraud on Sharna's HSBC account, which raised her suspicions.

She Googled the caller's phone number, with the search appearing to confirm that they were really from HSBC.

The caller asked Sharna to go through security checks to “make sure it was her.”

Sharna ran the checks and then responded to a voice recognition request.

She now realizes that the scammer was trying to impersonate her so they could log into her account.

The scammer denied Sharna access to all her accounts and her online banking platform.

She was unaware that she continued to use her cards normally – until she received a letter seven days later with a loan in her name for £14,500.

Sharna went to her local HSBC branch in Sheffield where she learned that the scammers had taken out huge loans in her name

She also discovered that the vicious thieves had stolen all her HSBC savings.

Her accounts showed the scammers had spent £1,800 on three trips to Louis Vuitton in London.

They also threw away her hard-earned money on a series of £500 Sky Bet gambling games.

After spending three hours in the branch trying to stop the damage, Sharna was left without money for the bus ride home.

She added: “I find it quite disturbing that after what happened to me, I was still expected to endure things online or on the phone.”

HSBC said: “Fraudsters are devious individuals who target vulnerable customers without considering the consequences of their actions or the impact this has on customers.

“This fraud was extremely complex and required the collaboration of several teams within the bank to correct it.

“However, in some aspects of the services we provided, we did not meet the high standards we set for ourselves.

“We are sorry for this and have apologized to the customer, with the matter resolved and compensation accepted in December 2023.

“The customer does have the option to submit her complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if she remains dissatisfied.”

Action Fraud boss Pauline Smith said Sharna's case “has not been transferred to police for investigation”.

She said: 'As more than 850,000 reports are received by the NFIB each year, not all cases can be passed on for further investigation.

“Reports are assessed on a number of criteria, including the vulnerability of the victim.”

A New York financial advice columnist got scammed out of more than $50,000 – after falling for a scheme that saw her hand the cash over to a stranger in a shoe box.

Charlotte Cowles, 39, described the in-depth con in a piece featured in The Cut – a women-centered website run by New York Magazine.

The publication, along with The New York Times, employs Cowles as a columnist, penning articles mostly about personal finance.

This one, though, came in the form of a cautionary tale – one involving criminals posing as CIA agents, investigators from the FTC, and a Amazon customer service agent who told her she had been a victim of identity theft.  

They all told her she was in ‘imminent danger’ – leading her to pack up the shoe box and put in the backseat of a White Mercedes that pulled up aside her home.

The first-person feature, published Thursday, clocks in at nearly 6,000 words, and is fittingly titled, The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger. 

‘How could I have been such easy prey?’ Cowles, previously the senior features editor at Harper’s Bazaar, writes at one point in the article.

‘Scam victims tend to be single, lonely, and economically insecure with low financial literacy,’ she continues. ‘I am none of those things. 

‘I’m closer to the opposite,’ the writer of The Cut’s ‘My Two Cents’ advice column insists.

‘I’m a journalist who had a weekly column in the “Business” section of the New York Times. I’ve written a personal-finance column for this magazine for the past seven years. I interview money experts all the time,’ 

She adds. ‘I’m married and talk to my friends, family, and colleagues every day… I’m not someone who loses her head.

‘My mother-in-law has described me as even-keeled… I am listed as an emergency contact for several friends… I vote, floss, cook, and exercise.’

Apparently modest, the accomplished contributor eventually got to the meat of the story – a so-called ‘conspiracy’ involving, as she puts it, ‘drug smuggling, money laundering, and [fake] CIA officers [showing up] at my door.’

It happened this past Halloween, and started with a call from a scammer posing as an employee for Amazon, Cowles – who has a B.A. in English from Columbia – recalls.

‘That morning… I dressed my toddler in a pizza costume for Halloween and kissed him good-bye before school,’ she writes.

‘I wrote some work emails. At about 12:30 p.m., my phone buzzed.   

‘The caller ID said it was Amazon,’ Cowles continues. ‘I answered. A polite woman with a vague accent told me she was calling from Amazon customer service to check some unusual activity on my account. 

‘The call was being recorded for quality assurance. Had I recently spent $8,000 on MacBooks and iPads?

‘I had not,’ Cowles – whose work has been featured in both Glamour and Politico – continues. 

‘I checked my Amazon account. My order history showed diapers and groceries, no iPads.’

The woman, who said her name was Krista, told Cowles the orders were made under her ‘business account.’

When the freelancer said she didn’t have one, the scammer feigned confusion.

‘”Hmm,” she said. “Our system shows that you have two.”‘ the mom-of-one recalls of the exchange.

The woman went on to tell her that she would flag the two business accounts and freeze their activity – providing Cowles with a phony case number for future reference.

They urged her to check her credit cards, which she did, with Cowles eventually thanking the woman for her help.

Then, the journalist writes, the scammer began to tell her how, recently, the Jeff Bezos-run company had encountered an influx of identity theft incidents similar to the one they were seeing.

It had become so pervasive, the fake agent reportedly told her, that the eCommerce firm head begun working ‘with a liaison at the Federal Trade Commission.’

When the woman asked if she could connect the two, Cowles not-so-hesitantly replied: ‘Um, sure?’ 

This put her into contact with a man who called himself as Calvin Mitchell, she recalls – noting how the supposed investigator provided a badge number, and had her take down his direct phone line.    

He told her the call was being recorded and monitored for her safety, and read her last four digits of her Social Security number.

He also knew her home address in a high-rise near Prospect Park, and her correct date of birth. 

‘The fact that he had my Social Security number threw me,’ Cowles writes, ignoring the fact the phony agent only provided the final four numerals.

‘We’ve been working on [it] for a while now,’ he reportedly warned. ‘It’s quite serious.’

The scam dragged on from there, with ‘Calvin’ telling Cowles that from what he could tell, the journalist had a whopping 22 bank accounts, nine vehicles, and four properties registered under her name. 

The bank accounts had wired more than $3 million overseas, he told her – mostly to Jamaica and Iraq. When he asked if this information was correct, a shaken Cowles reportedly told her chiseler, ‘No.’

The man on the line’s claims only got more over the top from there.

He asked her if he knew a woman by the name of Stella Suk-Yee Kwong, after which a texted me a photo of what looked like the woman’s ID, which he claimed had been found in a car rented under her name abandoned on the Southern Border.

The car, discovered in Texas, was found with blood and drugs in the trunk, Calvin claimed.

A home in New Mexico affiliated with the car rental had also been raided, the phony FTC sleuth further claimed – telling Cowles that there, cops recovered drugs, cash and bank statements registered under her name.

‘He finally added that there were warrants out for my arrest in not only Texas, but Maryland as well – both involving accusations of cybercrimes, money laundering and drug trafficking.’

Overwhelmed, Cowles, still on the line, responded by Googling her own name along with the words ‘warrant’ and ‘money laundering.’

A scared-stiff Cowles texted her husband. 

‘I’m in deep shit,’ she reportedly wrote, before eventually deleting the text at the scammer’s insistence. ‘My identity was stolen,’ she told her husband before. ‘It seems really bad.’

The conversation with Calvin then turned to potential ‘suspects,’ with the unseen agent telling her, ‘Everyone around you is a suspect.’

‘These are sophisticated criminals with a lot of money at stake,’ Calving reportedly told her. ‘You should assume you are in danger and being watched. You cannot take any chances.’

Fearing these phony federal offenses could ‘really f*ck up [her] life,’ she went on with the ruse.

When asked, Cowles told the man she only had checking and savings that boasted a combined balance of roughly $80,000. 

‘You must have worked very hard to save all that money,’ he went on to tell her. ‘Do not share your bank-account information with anyone.’

Assuring her that he was ‘going to keep [her] money safe,’ Calvin told her that he was going to transfer her over to a colleague of his at the CIA – billed as ‘the lead investigator on [her] case and the point man for such talks.’

Before finishing the call, he provided a nine-digit case number he said was meant for her records – a number that, after another Google search, did not point Cowles to and particular webpage.

Noting that they were not seeking her personal details as they already knew them, she recalled how she felt comfortable enough to go through with the third call.

The next man, Cowles recalls, had ‘a deeper voice and a slight British accent flecked with something [she] couldn’t identify.’

He gave his name as Michael Sarano – a CIA agent exclusively assigned to cases involving the FTC. Again, the man provided a badge number – sparking some of the first signs of skepticism from the widely published writer.  

As for an explanation, the man presenting himself as Michael said that in such cases, the CIA is forced to investigate the victim’s spouse as well, before insisting that the less he knows, the less chance he could ever be implicated.

Insisting she must adhere to this protocol, Michael responded with a more strict tone when Cowles – conceding that by this point she was ‘feeling stupid’ – reportedly expressed a hesitance to lie to her husband.

‘You are being investigated for major federal crimes,’ he told her. ‘By keeping your husband out of this, you are protecting him.’

Michael, at that point, bombarded her with the same sensational claims his phony FTC accomplice had  – telling her about the Texas border, the property in New Mexico, the drugs, and finally, the nearly two dozen bank accounts. 

‘If you talk to an attorney, I cannot help you anymore,’ the man on the line said sternly. ‘You will be considered noncooperative. Your home will be raided, and your assets will be seized. You may be arrested. It’s your choice.’

Noting how ‘ludicrous’ that seemed, Cowles responded by asking if she could visit Michael’s office in person to resolve the situation.

He told her that his office was at the CIA’s well-known headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and that they did not have enough time – telling her: ‘It’s going to sound crazy, but we must follow protocol if we’re going to catch the people behind this.’

He explained how the CIA would need to freeze all of her assets, including her real bank accounts, to halt the activity on the 22 fraudulent ones.

They would also deactivate her Social Security number, he told her – as it, too, had been compromised.

He promised to provide her a new one, saying they would continue to monitor any activity coming from the old one in hopes of catching the criminals in the act.  

Until then, he told her, she would need to use cash for day-to-day expenses.

‘It was far-fetched,’ Cowles writes at this point. ‘Ridiculous. But also not completely out of the realm of possibility.’

Asking if she had any other options, Cowles kept on, finally agreeing to follow each one of Michael’s instructions to the T.

The fake agent began by asking her how much cash she believed she would need to support myself for a full year – explaining that her assets could be frozen for such a span.

He told her that there could be a trial, and that these things ‘take time’ – after which Cowles said she could probably survive on $50,000.

Wondering how she could continue to receive freelance checks without a bank account and hoping her husband would float her some cash, she agreed to head to her local bank to withdraw the sum.   

‘You need to go to the bank and get that cash out now,’ Michael reportedly told her. ‘You cannot tell them what it is for. In one of my last cases, the identity thief was someone who worked at the bank.’

He also instructed her to keep him on the line – secretly, on speaker – so he could monitor the interaction, telling her: ‘It’s important that I monitor where this money goes from now on.’

He added that one his colleagues would arrive meet me her at her Prospect Heights home at 5 pm – less than five hours than the first scammers’ call came in – to guide her through the next steps.

When she reached the bank, she told a guard that she needed to make a sizable cash withdrawal, leading her to send her upstairs. 

Michael, meanwhile, was on speakerphone in my pocket, Cowles recalls – writing how when she reached the teller, she asked for the agreed-upon $50,000. 

The woman behind the glass ‘raised her eyebrows,’ Cowles says, before disappearing into a back room.

She returned with with a metal box filled with $100 bills, and began funneling them into a counting machine.

Cowles recalls how when she left without issue, Michael ‘was bursting with praise.’

She then writes how during her walk back, she finally became suspicious of what was going on.

‘I don’t even believe that you’re a CIA agent,’ Cowles reportedly told him. ‘What you’re asking me to do is completely unreasonable.’

He responded with an exasperated sigh.

A picture of Michael’s badge soon appeared on her phone, and a still-skeptical Cowles decided against asking for further verification.

When she got home, Michael unleashed a new barrage of orders, Cowles writes.

He commanded her to get a box, put the cash in, and take a picture, before taping it shut.

Labeling it with her name, fake case number, address, and signature, Cowles took another picture of the labeled box at Michael’s behest.

‘My colleague will be there soon,’ he told her. ‘He is an undercover CIA agent, and he will secure the money for you.’

‘You are being charged with money laundering,’ he said. ‘If we secure this cash and then issue you a government check under your new Social Security number, that will be considered clean money.’

Cowles responded by saying that she would need to see the undercover’s badge if she was going to hand the shoe box over, after which Michael insisted: ‘Undercover agents don’t carry badges.’

Again, Cowles accepted the man’s warped logic, and conceded in the Thursday piece: ‘I didn’t know what else to do.’

By 6 pm, Cowles received the call to go downstairs. Michael’s colleague was arriving, he told her.

By then, her husband had returned from work and was reading to our son. 

‘What’s going on? Is everything OK?’ he asked her as she got her coat on and affixed herself to go outside. She motioned to the phone as if she was busy on the other line. 

She told her: ‘I have to go downstairs and meet a guy who’s helping with the identity-theft case. I’ll explain more later.’

She left and walked out of her building, all while Michael remained on the line.

Within three minutes, a White SUV pulled up to the curb. It was 6:06 pm.

Following instructions, she left the box in the back seat. She writes that she did not get a good look at the person or people inside, as the windows were tinted and it was dark. By the time she returned inside, Michael had texted her a photo of a Treasury check made out to her for $50,000.

He assured her a hard copy would be hand-delivered to me in the morning. It never came.

Before that, though, Michael told his mark to stay on the line, as he was working on setting up my appointment for her with the Social Security office. 

Feeling comforted by the concept of a real appointment with an actual government agency, Cowles kept the scammer on speaker in her pocket while she took her two-year-old trick-or-treating.

At one point, she said she checked to see if Michael was still there, but was instead met with his female colleague who told her he’d be back soon.

Then, when she returned home, she found that the call had been ended.

Panicking, she called back, and was again met with the unnamed woman who said Michael was busy and that the Social Security Office was closed.

Finally realizing that the woman was likely not telling the truth, Cowles began to tear into her unseen aggravators.

‘You are lying to me. Michael was lying,’ she told the woman. 

After hanging up, she told her husband what had happened. 

‘Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked her, in disbelief that she had fallen for such an obvious scam.

They proceeded to put their son to bed, and called Cowles’ parents and brother for advice.

They agreed that the proper course of action was to phone 911, and by 10:30 pm, three officers arrived. 

She recalled how one cop told her that no government agency will ever ask anyone for money, to which she replied: ‘It didn’t really feel like he was asking.’

The police told her not to worry, but to consider the cash as good as gone.

They promised to check traffic cameras for the car, but four months later, an arrest has yet to be made, Cowles admits.

She said that friends told her that if the scammers never mentioned her son, she would never have fallen for such a scam – something she says she now believes to be true.

By Max Aitchison for Daily Mail Australia

Published: 10:36 EST, February 14, 2024 | Updated: 7:05 PM EST, February 14, 2024

KNOWING how to block phone numbers is essential to combating scam calls and phishing attempts.

This is especially useful if the same number tries to reach you repeatedly.

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It is advised to ignore and block suspected scammers.

If you initiate a conversation with the scammer (even though you know it is a scammer), this indicates to the scammer that your phone number is actively in use.

They (and others they give your number to) may then continue to try their various phishing strategies on you.

Whereas if you give them radio silence and block them, you will not only stop receiving messages and calls, but you may even try to scam your phone number.

How to block a number on an iPhone

There are several ways you can block a number, depending on which app you prefer to use.

To block an unknown caller, visit Apple's Telephone app> Recent > then tap next to the number or contact you want to block.

Then scroll to the bottom of your screen and tap Block this caller.

The same method can be used if you go into it Contacts and tap the person you want to block.

If you happen to be inside To informOpen the conversation with the person you want to block, as shown in the video.

Tap the contact's name at the top, then click Info and scroll down until you see it Block this caller.

The same can apply if you're on FaceTime.

Just click the info button next to the contact or number you want to block and follow the steps above.

When you block someone, they can still leave you a voicemail, but you won't be notified.

Messages sent or received to the blocked number will not be delivered.

Do people I block get a notification?

The blocked contact will not be notified that you have blocked him or her, so he or she may initially think that you are ignoring him or her.

If you are bothered by unwanted texts, make sure you click the option to report them.

This option appears when you receive a message from a number that is not in your Contacts.

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CHECK OUT the two bikini images below and be afraid, very afraid, of what scammers have done to a completely innocent holiday selfie.

An online report obtained by The Sun shows scammers training fellow cyber fraudsters on how to hijack a social media clip and how to make the woman remove her costume to appear nearly naked.

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The result can then be used to release the victim for a large sum of money.

It's just one example of a growing scourge of romance fraud, with scammers preying on dating apps and social media sites to take advantage of users.

With advanced deep-fake video and voice cloning, they can also create fake dating profiles, using AI, to woo both women and men, before asking them to invest in scams or pay out for 'emergencies'.

Glamorous dating profiles are also stolen and manipulated to lure admirers and trick them into parting with money.

Scammers are using encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to exchange tips on new scams, including pre-written 'romantic' scripts apparently sent by real lonely hearts.

The latest figures show that the number of romance scams is increasing by a fifth year on year.

As many as one in three Britons are duped – and in total cost around £95 million a year.

Campaigner Anna Rowe infiltrated the schemers' training sessions on the dark web and spotted them exchanging messages, such as the selfie edit, which she shared with The Sun.

Mother-of-two Anna, 51, has now set up websites and social media platforms to help victims – and knows their pain all too well.

She fell for a man on dating site Tinder.

'Antony' then dated her for months before discovering he had lied on a fake profile, and had a wife and children, as well as FIVE lovers who he also fooled.

Anna said: “It's getting more dangerous.

“Scammers have training groups and trade in hacked accounts and scam tools.

They can clone a voice and create deepfake videos that will soon be so convincing that it will appear as if they are sitting on the screen in front of a victim and having a conversation.

For many scammers, English is not their first language, so they use scripts.

They now use AI software like ChatGPT, which is extra compelling.”

Anna found a group, Yahoo Boys, where a trainer told scammers how to pressure victims with fake or real nude photos.

In a blueprint message, he calls the potential victim a bitch and threatens to send photos to everyone she knows, adding: “You'll soon blame yourself.”

Another online scammer shares a chilling script he sent to a woman that reads: “I have your nudes and everything I need to ruin your life.”

According to Lloyds Bank, the number of customers robbed by romance fraud rose by 22 percent last year.

Men made up 52 per cent of cases and were hit for an average of £5,145, compared to £9,083 for female victims.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau received more than 8,000 reports of romance scams in 2022, but experts fear many victims may feel too embarrassed to contact law enforcement.

Lisa Mills, fraud expert at Victim Support, said: “We had a woman who lost thousands in a case involving AI.

“The scammer transplanted the face of the profile he had hacked into his own, and was able to have a conversation with the lady involved online.

“People have become suicidal because of romance scams.

“They are going through a period of grieving after they thought they were building a real relationship.”

People have become suicidal because of romance scams

Lisa Mills

Mum-of-four Julie-Anne Kearns shared her breast cancer journey on social media, but was attacked.

Julie-Anne, 46, a care assistant from Poole, Dorset, underwent a double mastectomy after doctors discovered she carried a faulty gene, putting her at high risk of breast cancer.

In November 2022, she started talking to a man named Andrew whose friend request she accepted on Facebook.

He claimed to have worked in the military on a Peace Corps mission in Afghanistan – an operation that Julie-Anne now knows was shut down in 1979.

She said: “He told me how much he wanted to be with me, asked me what gifts I liked and where I wanted to go on holiday.

“He asked me if I believed in love at first sight and fate, and said we were meant to be together.

“I now know that this is known as love-bombing, the first stage of the manipulation game.

“Then came the sob story.

“He said his wife had died after being hit by a drunk driver and that he had a daughter at boarding school in London.”

But Julie-Anne became suspicious when 'Andrew' started asking her to send him iTunes gift cards.

When she put his image in a Google search, it appeared on many profiles – and she blocked him.

Julie-Anne, who now runs a TikTok page that gives advice to other women, added: “If I hadn't confronted him he would have gone ahead and asked for more money.”

Similarly, in 2014, grandmother Ruth Grover decided to lose her husband and become a scammer target.

I now know that this is known as love-bombing, the first stage of the manipulation game

Julie-Anne

Ruth, 66, from Hartlepool, created Facebook and Instagram sites called ScamHaters United, which now have tens of thousands of followers and expose fake profiles.

She says the problem is worse than ever, with victims being contacted through dating apps, social media, online games such as Scrabble and Words With Friends, on their Fitbits and even on karaoke platforms.

She said fraudsters often claim they are covering up their lies.

She said: “Romance scams have been a big problem throughout Covid as everyone has been glued to technology, and it hasn't let up.

“Thousands of people contact me.”

People whose profiles are stolen by fraudsters also suffer greatly.

James Blake, 30, who runs a digital marketing company in Lisburn, County Antrim, had his identity hacked by scammers who wooed women and then stole sums of up to £50,000.

The cheats hijacked James's dashing Instagram photos, which show him driving a Lamborghini and McLaren race car and showing off a Rolex.

He said: “I realized something was up when a man in my office asked if I had just followed him from a new Instagram account.

“It was clearly a fake profile.

“We laughed and thought, 'This is a kid in his bedroom messing around.'

“But more and more profiles were added in the coming weeks.

“I deleted them. But then I started getting messages from women asking, 'Are you talking to me on this dating app?'

“I was shocked because I wasn't there. But things snowballed.

“I woke up every day to messages from women saying, 'I thought I was talking to you and now I realize it's fake and I gave money for an investment project,' or for X, Y, Z.

“The amounts ranged from a few hundred to £50,000 and the women came from all over the world.

“Many are really invested in the relationship.”

Last year James investigated the scammers with the BBC Three documentary Hunting The Catfish Crime Gang, now on iPlayer.

He revealed secret centers in Cambodia and Myanmar where trafficked Chinese and South Asian nationals work for a pittance to defraud people – and are beaten by gang masters if they fail.

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An Australian charity worker has revealed how scammers withdrew $120,000 from his bank account while he was camping with no phone reception.

Armen Arakelian, a volunteer firefighter who works with conservation charity Back to the Bush, was on a Christmas trip near the Snowy Mountains in NSW when the fraudsters struck.

They 'ported' his phone number to one of their own devices – a process where scammers pose as a phone owner and transfer the number to a new telecom provider.

This allowed them to get two-factor authentication codes into his account and the entire $120,000 was transferred in 50 transactions in a few days, all while Mr. Arakelian was unaware.

When he got back on the phone and discovered the theft, he immediately alerted his bank HSBC, but he claims they asked him to sign a form stating he had approved the transactions and absolving them of any liability.

Mr Arakelian told 2GB's Ben Fordham on Thursday that the scammers had taken the money from a mortgage account.

“The $120,000 isn't even in my own savings. Try to find someone with that much money, it's all beyond my credit limit,” he said.

“It's actually a debt I owe to the bank with interest and the bank already sent me something yesterday saying I'm late on the interest payments.”

Mr Arakelian said he explained what had happened, but the bank insisted he was 'overdue' and owed the money immediately.

'There are two ways these thefts happen. Either people are scammed by voluntarily or unintentionally disclosing account information because they are being misled.

'Or vice versa, there is real fraud, involving unauthorized transactions.

“There is an e-payment code that determines who is liable in these situations and I am a victim of true fraud because these transactions occurred without my involvement or knowledge and I had no part in them.”

Mr Arkelian claimed HSBC 'unethically' tried to get him to sign a document saying he had carried out the transactions.

“So it's easier for them to say later that you made the transactions so we don't refund you,” he said.

When asked what his telecoms company Optus said on the number porting issue, Mr Arakelian said he was “picking his battles” and currently had his hands full with HSBC.

“At this point, HSBC is liable because these were unauthorized transactions,” he said.

'I have never clicked on suspicious links or given out my password.

'I am the last person who would fall victim to such a fraud, but it shows that everyone is at risk and you never know when they will strike.

“They hit me at noon on Boxing Day, so even if I wasn't camping, I would have gotten up the next day and tens of thousands of dollars would already be gone.”

A spokesperson for HSBC said the bank does not discuss individual cases for privacy reasons.

“HSBC takes customer safety seriously and we investigate all reported customer issues, with the outcome depending on each set of circumstances,” he said.

'The bank is investing heavily to protect our customers and is playing our part in supporting the wider financial services sector in this area.'

The bank said it has advice available online and in its branches to educate customers on how to reduce their chances of falling victim to scams.

It is also working with the Australian Banking Association on industry-wide methods to combat scammers.

According to the ACCC, this particular scam is becoming increasingly common.

'Scammers transfer mobile services from one provider to another to steal your identity and your money. This is called mobile porting fraud,” the ACCC said.

'Scammers can also contact your existing provider and ask to swap the SIM card so they can take over your service and steal your money. This is called SIM swap fraud.

'Your service provider must follow rules to protect you from scammers. They must verify your identity before transferring your telephone, mobile or internet subscription.'

Daily Mail Australia has contacted HSBC, Optus and Mr Arakelian for comment.

By Emily Prescott

Published: 5:00 PM EST, February 3, 2024 | Updated: 5:40 PM EST, February 3, 2024