B.C. woman swindled out of $23,000 by South African lover: RCMP | iNFOnews | #daitngscams | #lovescams

April 14, 2022 – 3:30 PM

An Interior woman could have been featured on the TLC show 90-day Fiancé after her South African lover swindled her out of thousands of dollars.

On April 7, Lillooet RCMP reported a woman went to the detachment and reported she had been a victim of a romance scam.

She told police she went to South Africa in 2021 and met a man who appeared well off and well connected, and she fell madly in love. She returned to Canada and made plans with him to have him join her in the country as soon as possible. 

The man began asking the woman to send him money for various expenses that included plane tickets and diamonds. Over the course of the next three months, the woman sent the man more than $23,000.

Meanwhile, the man continued to delay his planned move to Canada, for reasons that kept changing. Eventually the woman refused to send the man anymore money and the love affair ended, according to RCMP.

Police are warning residents to learn more about the red flags to watch for in the most common types of scams and to visit sites such as the BC RCMP Frauds and Scams, Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, or the Competition Bureau where you may obtain a copy of the very helpful Little Black Book of Scams.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won’t censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.