Man Dumped Wife For Online Lover Who Turned Out To Be A Nigerian Scammer
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| Rebecca and Paul now plan to wed |
When Rebecca Lewis found out her fiance planned to leave her for a pretty blonde he had met online, her world fell apart.
Messages on his laptop showed he had been flirting for months with the woman he had “met” weeks after proposing to her.
Calling herself Kristen White, the mystery woman had contacted Paul Rusher on social networking sites at least 10 times a day for months, after sending a Facebook friend request out of the blue.
Rebecca, 30, read the messages between them and saw that, despite never having met her, sales assistant Paul, 29, had declared his love to Kristen and told her he planned a future with her.
When Rebecca confronted her fiance, he told her she was dumped and she packed her bags and left the home they shared.
But instead of moving on, devastated Rebecca became suspicious of Paul’s new romance and turned detective.
She soon found he had been the victim of a romance scam, where fraudsters use pictures of Russian models to trick unsuspecting men into parting with thousands of pounds.
Instead of letting love rat Paul fall foul of the con, Rebecca intervened and stopped him giving £2,000 to Kristen, who had asked to borrow the money for flights so she could to join him in the UK.
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Even more astonishingly, Rebecca then agreed to take Paul back.
She admits: “I suspected Paul had been cheating on me, but I never thought he’d dump me for someone he hadn’t even met.
“I was heartbroken when I saw the messages from Kristen. It was a slap in the face, especially as they’d started talking so soon after Paul had proposed.”
Rebecca and Paul got together after meeting at the Sainsbury’s where they both worked in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, four years ago. In July 2012, Paul proposed.
She says: “He got down on one knee after I came home from work one night. He was really nervous, but I was over the moon.
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| Kristen': Picture of innocent Russian model used by scammers |
But by the October that year, Paul had become withdrawn, spending hours glued to his laptop.
Rebecca says: “We’d set a date for our wedding and I should have been getting excited, but alarm bells started ringing when he made me go to a wedding fayre on my own.
“I suspected he was cheating on me. We’d been so in love, but overnight, he hardly wanted to look at me. There had to be another girl.
"I’d set up his Facebook profile for him, so I decided to log in as I knew the password. I was absolutely distraught when I saw he’d been chatting to Kristen for months. She was stunning.
“He told her he’d always dreamed of travelling the world. She replied that she was due to inherit a lot of money and suggested they go on a trip together.”
Sales assistant Rebecca confronted Paul, who told her he was in love with Kristen and called off their engagement.
Rebecca says: “I was gutted. It was like he’d been brainwashed. I ran from the house in tears and went straight to a friend’s. Over the next few days I moved back in with my parents.
“But even though Paul had treated me so badly, I was still in love with him. I couldn’t see myself growing old with anyone else. I had a gut feeling all wasn’t as it seemed with Kristen.
“She used several different numbers to contact Paul and when he asked her about the money she was due to come into, she insisted it was tied up in the shares of a Nigerian company. It was all a bit suspicious.”
Desperate for answers, Rebecca looked online for information on Kristen, who told Paul she was the 26-year-old daughter of a Californian millionaire.
She says: “I sent Kristen a message myself, but she replied telling me to leave her alone as Paul had chosen her.
"I was crushed, but one of my friends suggested Paul could have been the victim of a scam.
"I typed the words ‘romance scam’ into Google. A picture of Kristen popped up on the first page of results.”
The picture was linked to a forum dedicated to Kristen and how she had attempted to trick men out of money.
Rebecca says: “I wasn’t surprised it was a con. There were around 20 pages of posts with pictures of Kristen, although she’d been using different names to chat to different men. She’d asked them all for money.
“I say she – she could have been a man for all I knew, or a gang of men. I did a bit more snooping and I discovered whoever was behind it had used the pictures of a Russian model to create the profiles I’d seen on Paul’s laptop.
“I knew it was only a matter of time before someone tried to get some cash out of Paul. I had to warn him.”
Rebecca texted Paul the links to the forums outing Kristen. He didn’t believe her at first, but she bombarded him with evidence about his so-called girlfriend.
Rebecca says: “At first, he was in denial and insisted what he had with Kristen was real. But eventually, he admitted she had asked him for £2,000 so she could fly to the UK to be with him – despite the fact her dad was a millionaire.
"He’d replied saying he loved her and couldn’t wait to see her. I’m so glad I sent him the links before he sent any money.”
When reality dawned, Paul was mortified. Rebecca says: “He’d told his friends and parents about Kristen and had to go back and admit she didn’t exist. It was embarrassing but I helped him write to Kristen, saying the scam had been rumbled.
“Kristen, or whoever she was, replied straight away, saying she had a new boyfriend and didn’t want to be with Paul.”
Rebecca and Paul, who split in January 2013, kept in touch and a few months later, he admitted he still had feelings for her.
He spent a year trying to win her back and they reunited in May 2014 after Rebecca decided to give him another chance.
Now she is convinced the experience has made their relationship better.
She says: “Paul realised how much of an idiot he’d been and we slowly rebuilt our relationship. My parents were horrified at first when I decided to get back with him as he’d put me through hell, but now we’re stronger than ever.
"We’re saving for our wedding again, although we have a joint Facebook account now.”
Paul says he is grateful Rebecca rumbled Kristen and agreed to give their relationship another go.
He says: “I was flattered that this pretty girl was taking such an interest in me and we were talking to each other for months before she even mentioned money.
“It was nice to have someone else to talk to and I was chatting to her at night, while Rebecca worked night shifts.
“She just managed to completely turn my head, to change my perspective on my life.
“She made me feel that I was unhappy with Rebecca. I didn’t believe it was a scam at first. She caught me off guard and convinced me she was real.
“I’m just glad I didn’t give the scammer any money. My head was in the wrong place when this happened, and it messed me up completely.
“Now that I have a second chance with Rebecca, I’m never letting her go.”
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