Romance scams: Steven Kelly photos stolen from Facebook
Blue eyes and broad shoulders characterize the soldier shown in this photo. He also has a sharp jawline. On his social media profile, he describes himself as a ‘proud Army dad’.
But the handsome ‘Anderson Woods’ is a fake. The man in the photograph is, in fact, Steven Kelly, a British father whose face has been used by scammers to dupe love-struck victims out of more than £1 million. In the two-year period, hundreds have used his photos on dating and social media sites. This has also led to him being threatened by strangers.
Netflix’s latest hit documentary, The Tinder Swindler, tells the tale of a conman who posed as the son of a billionaire diamond mogul on dating apps. Simon Leviev also called Shimon Hayut was another name for Simon Leviev. He then conned millions of people out of money by convincing them that they were sending money to him under false pretences.
This is only the beginning of the story. Around £15.1 million was stolen by romance fraudsters in the first half of 2021, according to trade body UK Finance — a 91 per cent increase on the same period in 2019. Victims lost an average of £6,100 each.
The crooks also use dating apps to scam people. The crooks often attack widows and the weak. They targeted those locked down because they felt alone during the pandemic.
And as in Steven’s case, many use photographs of real people to lure in victims.
This 35-year old is currently in the Army, and owns a company that offers survival classes in Plymouth.
His girlfriend Jenny Pearce (37), and his 13-year old daughter, Chloe, are both his.
Since September 2019, however, he has received a flood of online messages from strangers claiming to be in a relationship.
It all began when a friend’s girlfriend told him she had received a message from someone using his photographs on the social media site Instagram. They were all taken from South West Survival’s social media pages.
A mysterious account holder stated that he was a soldier in Syria.
A few weeks later, Steven received a message from a German widow in her 50s who said she had paid someone posing as him £3,000 for his daughter’s cancer treatment.
Soldier: Steven (35), is an Army veteran and owns a survival training business in Plymouth, Devo
Steven says: ‘I felt sorry for her. She was just looking for a man and someone took advantage of her.’
Steven called Action Fraud to alert him, a national reporting center for fraud under the supervision of City of London Police.
But it dropped his case because he had not lost any money and identity theft was ‘not a police recordable crime’. It wasn’t long though, before Steven was receiving up to five messages a day from victims all over the world.
It was easier for him to be tracked down because some fake accounts used his real identity.
Others have uploaded the victim’s image to Google. This allows them see exactly where it is located online.
Most victims were divorcees, widows, or people in their 60s. According to Lloyds Bank: Romance fraudsters tend to target people between the ages 45-54.
Based on the messages he has received, Steven estimates that his photos have been used to steal at least £1 million.
Women were often asked for money to cover urgent medical care. Some others were asked for money to help pay for urgent medical treatment.
Some victims were talking with the fraudster for over a year before realizing the truth.
Steven says: ‘One woman was convinced we were getting married — some of them are so upset, they refuse to believe it’s not you.’
Most victims were divorcees, widows, or people in their 60s. The most common age group to fall for romance scammers is between 45-54, according to Lloyds Bank
Now, he sends victims a nearly automatic response asking them to report any fake profiles on the site concerned.
Steven claims that TikTok is a Chinese social-media platform and has not taken down any account.
Money Mail discovered an active user profile that had more than 1000 followers and still uses his images.
Facebook and Instagram were better at eliminating scam accounts than he thought, though newer ones can quickly replace the old ones.
Ruth Grover of ScamHaters United (which helps victims report fraudulent online profiles) says that scammers use photos of soldiers to justify why they can’t meet or don’t communicate often.
Steven lost his patience over the past two years. He now avoids victims, as he knows that conversations with sinister people can lead to him becoming a serial killer.
One woman told him a group of young men would beat him up with baseball bats, and another victim’s son threatened to shoot him.
He is often targeted by angry women for his love, Jenny.
Steven says: ‘Many of these scammers are using pictures of my daughter Chloe and me camping, which is horrible.’
The MPs will discuss new guidelines that force social media sites to conduct strict identity verification at the end of March.
Steven is able to warn his followers on social media about scammers, but that’s all he can do for the moment. He says: ‘It’s horrendous, I worry about my business and my family — it’s affected my whole life and I just don’t know when it will end.’
After Money Mail alerted TikTok, several accounts that impersonated Steven were removed by the company.
Facebook also removed an Instagram account with his photos, and the page was also taken down.
Sites say that they don’t allow accounts to be created in the persona of another individual.
An Action Fraud spokesman says: ‘The Home Office sets out the circumstances under which we can record a crime and there are in excess of 56 different types of fraud and cyber codes that we use.’
f.parker@dailymail.co.uk