One man’s story of an online dating scam will scare the hell out of you

He got caught out for between £8,000 and £10,000...

Beware of the perils of online dating. It can be a minefield. Just ask John (not his real name) who spoke to Stephen Nolan on The Nolan Show about his horrible experience with online dating. John outlined how he had joined the world of online dating because he was feeling lonely and he wanted some female company. He fell victim of an online dating scam. He thought he'd found what he was looking for but pretty quickly, the person said that her parents were sick and she couldn't afford food and that she needed money. John wanted to help her out, and do "the decent thing". But he didn't realise that she was taking money from his account until the bank got in touch with him. He had a sit down interview with the bank who questioned him on the transfers and that was when he discovered that she had taken between £8,000 and £10,000 from his account. Chief Superintendent Simon Walls of the Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) that there are a lot scams such as this one doing the rounds and that people should be wary of giving out any personal details. "The sad thing is," Walls said, "John is just one of probably hundreds of victims across Northern Ireland who are falling victims to scams, general scams and what we call romance scam/dating scam. "It's coming up to February 14, people are looking for friendship, for companionship and for love and are thus more susceptible to falling for one of these scams." You can listen to the full interview below: