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21st Nov 2018

Irish man caught out by elaborate scam which saw his naked images posted online

Alan Loughnane

bank scam

We feel so sorry for this man.

A 60-year-old widower has revealed how he was the victim of an elaborate cat-fishing scam which culminated in naked photos of himself being posted online.

The man, known as Bart, spoke with Joe Duffy on RTÉ Liveline on Tuesday about the “humiliating” experience which has resulted in some of his friends not speaking to him for the past 18 months.

Bart came into contact with a woman through work he was doing for a non-profit clothes shop which gives clothes to orphanages in Ghana.

The pair began talking over Skype, and shared images with one another, before Bart and the woman arranged to meet when Bart was visiting Ghana.

She did not appear at the airport and soon after Bart received a message stating the chat had been hacked and he would have to pay them €60,000, otherwise they would post the compromising images of him on Facebook.

“I didn’t give them the €60,000 and they put the photographs on Facebook and that, Joe was totally, totally embarrassing,” Bart said.

He said that despite the humiliation, people were very supportive towards him after the photos were posted, but he did admit that some people he knew have not spoken to him since.

“Not alone was I after losing someone who I thought was going to be the love of my life after my wife died,” Bart said. “It was just humiliating. It’s even humiliating to talk about it but… six months later this guy rang me. There’s a very famous investigator in Ghana and he said he could get me back my money, if I sent him €600.

“So I sent him the €600 thinking I was doing the right thing again. I actually checked with my solicitor this time. My solicitor checked the thing again and said everything was OK to send that money. ”

However this turned out to be another scam, which Bart discovered after the person called looking for even more money. Bart said he lost over €6,000 from the scams.

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