- Grandmother, 66, was lonely after losing her husband six years ago
- She met a man claiming to be General Mark Alexander over Facebook
- The victim was persuaded to transfer the fraudster thousands of pounds
A lonely widow was scammed out of £12,000 by a fraudster pretending to be a US general.
The grandmother, 66, said she fell in love online with a conman claiming to be Mark Alexander Milley, a decorated four-star General.
The man convinced the woman to send him £12,000 over several months, telling her that he was preparing to move to Gwynedd, north west Wales, to marry her.
The woman, who does not want to be named, eventually spoke to the police and has spoken out because she does not want others to fall victim.
She said: ‘I’ve lost all confidence and faith in men, I don’t even want to leave the house or speak to anyone.
‘He’s had a good laugh at me but I’ll be damned if he does it to anyone else.
‘There’s nothing I can do about the money now but my revenge will be stopping him from doing this to anyone else.’
The victim met the fraudster over Facebook, where he had set up a profile using photographs of the real General Milley. The general has had his pictures stolen by a number of fraudsters and has previously posted on Facebook to warn others about the dangers of identity fraud.
Just two weeks after first making contact, ‘Milley’ demanded the woman send him money because his son – who he said called her ‘mummy’ – needed medical treatment he could not afford.
Over the course of the ‘relationship’ he claimed to be first in Afghanistan and then in Ghana.
The victim started transferring large sums through money transfer service MoneyGram, ignoring warnings from friends and family who said she was being scammed.
She said the fraudster felt ‘real’ to her and that she enjoyed having someone to talk to after losing her husband four years ago.
She said: ‘He used to say such lovely things to me and made me feel wanted.
‘We would speak online every day, but he always had an excuse for not being able to talk to me over the phone.
He used to say such lovely things to me and made me feel wanted. We would speak online every day, but he always had an excuse for not being able to talk to me over the phone The victim of the scam
‘He told me he wanted to move to Wales and marry me, he even had me believing there were documents on their way to me in the post for me to sign so that he was legally my husband. Those documents never arrived.’
The woman estimates that she sent a total of £12,000 to the fraudster, using the inheritance her husband had left her and cashing out all of her savings.
She sent so much money that she was at one point unable to pay her gas or electricity bill and yet was still considering taking out a loan so she could send more.
But a few months into the scam the woman realised there was something wrong and phoned North Wales Police for advice.
She claims North Wales Police told her that ‘there was nothing they could do’ and suggested that she contact Action Fraud, which she did not.
The victim has now blocked the fake Facebook account and has changed her mobile number but said she still feels vulnerable.
Despite the trauma, the woman said she still misses ‘Milley’ because ‘she was in love’.
She said: ‘I miss him and I love him and it’s hard not having him to talk to anymore. He’s left me a broken woman.’
The real General Mark Milley’s posted on his Facebook page in July warning people to be wary of online scammers.
He wrote: ‘There have been times that my image has been used fraudulently to victimize well-meaning people.
‘These scammers prey upon the goodwill of others and harm the reputation of our great soldiers for their own personal gain.
‘The best way to combat this is by educating individuals about the issue and making it more difficult for these scammers to make a profit.’
