Is my online lover a FAKE? We investigate a US Army major who is in a relationship with a 70-year-old reader

We all know at least one happy couple who fell in love after meeting online.

After watching her friends find their perfect match, Clara Pierce* hoped she too would have a serious relationship with her boyfriend Shawn, who she met on TikTok last November.

Clara, 70, from Cheshire, admits she was initially skeptical when Shawn sent her out of the blue a message on the social media video app asking her to follow her, but once they started chatting via text they were able to didn’t stop anymore – and started sending messages several times a day.

The only thing preventing them from meeting in person was that Shawn, a 55-year-old sergeant major in the U.S. Army, was stationed in Israel and wouldn’t return from his tour of duty to his home in Florida until May, she says.

In the meantime, he needed help paying his phone bill so they could continue messaging, for which she agreed to transfer a total of £1,534.99. In return, Shawn surprised Clara with a silver necklace that was sent to her house, where she lives alone.

Although the couple never spoke on the phone, Clara was planning to fly to Florida upon his return, when he said they could finally start their life together.

But when Clara read Money Mail on Valentine’s Day last month, she says she was overcome with a sense of dread.

Our report on a romance con artist who made up stories and identities to prey on women bore alarming similarities to her own online relationship, she says.

We had warned of an increase in the number of scammers posing as US military personnel deployed to the Middle East who then ask for money to pay for phone bills, uniforms or food, typically asking for the payments to be made via Bitcoin. doing.

This matched Shawn’s backstory word for word. Clara, a retired pharmacy technician, couldn’t ignore the warning signs, so she approached Money Mail hoping we could allay her fears about Shawn.

She told us: ‘I started to think something was wrong, but I love him and he seems very genuine, so I hope things work out. I don’t want to jeopardize our relationship, but I really want to make sure. I would hate it if he turned out to be a fraud.

“Are there really many American soldiers stationed in Israel and patrolling against Hamas? Every time I ask or interrogate Shawn something, he makes me feel guilty, talks me around and tells me he would never lie to me. I don’t know what to do.

“Maybe I’m cynical, but it seems a bit far-fetched that he’s there and if he’s 55, that’s too old for active duty.”

Clara had felt uncomfortable at the age Shawn had given, 55, when he looked closer to 35 in his photos. The 70-year-old’s daughter also expressed concern about Shawn’s legitimacy and asked her to be careful.

Clara’s own research found Shawn online and she checked to see if his phone number was indeed a Florida number (which it was), but found no evidence of his age.

Money Mail agreed to work with top fraud experts from Nationwide, Clara’s building society, to investigate whether her relationship was fake and whether the money was funding criminals. The evidence we found was irrefutable.

We discovered that the photos Clara had received from Shawn had been used by scammers to financially exploit other women and were on scam alert websites.

The home Shawn said he owned in Florida had also recently been sold. During the three months of their relationship, Clara had sent £1,534.99 to Shawn in five transactions, some of which were via Bitcoin.

She said: ‘He said he needed money to pay his phone bills, which came to £250 each time.

‘He also doesn’t like the food in Israel and needed money to buy American food, which he said was expensive.

“Shawn told me he didn’t have access to his bank account and that he wouldn’t be able to get the money if it wasn’t paid for with Bitcoin, so I had to learn how to do that.”

However, the third transfer to a cryptocurrency app did not go through, for reasons unknown to Nationwide and Clara.

She says Shawn then told her to send the money to Mr. Bohdan Samoniuk, who Shawn claimed could deliver the money to him.

Jim Winters, economic crime director at Nationwide, said: ‘This case was a textbook example of romance fraud and reading the Ny Breaking article allowed our client to realize that there were many warning signs in her own situation. While it is disturbing, we are glad we put an end to it early.”

Clara has blocked Shawn on all social media and said she no longer wants to talk to him. “I’ve been so fond of him, it’s very upsetting because he sent such sweet messages. “I live alone and when we started talking, I got involved,” she says.

Clara has now received a full refund from Nationwide for the money she transferred to the criminal posing as Shawn.

Most banks will have to reimburse you if you’ve transferred money to someone because of a scam, but they can refuse refunds if you haven’t been ‘sufficiently careful’.

This applies, for example, if you have not paid attention to warnings from your bank or if you have not informed your bank as soon as possible if you suspect that you have been scammed.

Mr Winters says: ‘Anyone can fall victim to romance scams as criminals can be persuasive enough to trick someone who is looking for love or is feeling lonely into giving them trust, personal details and ultimately money, even if they meet each other. hasn’t met yet.’

According to Lloyds Bank, romance scams have risen by a fifth in the past year. An estimated £4.3 million has already been lost to romance fraud this year, according to banking organization UK Finance.

Clara said: “I feel humbled but I am so grateful to the Mail and Nationwide. Shawn the scammer is now removed, lesson learned!”

• Are you afraid you have been scammed? Contact: j.beard@dailymail.co.uk

*Names have been changed.