For those of us who have used dating apps in the past, we know how it feels to swipe over and over again just for no one to take our fancy.
And when you do get a match, it either never passes the talking stage, you get ghosted or they say something that gives you the ick.
So when Sophie James stumbled upon a tall, dark and handsome man called Tom on Tinder last year, she was immediately stopped in her tracks.
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The 27-year-old, who lives in Manchester city centre, swiped right to show her interest in November 2022 and the pair hit it off right away.
Sophie, who works as a hairdresser in Cheshire, soon learned that Tom had similar interests in film and music and lived just six miles away.
Before long, the pair had exchanged numbers and were talking frequently through voice messages. After a month of getting to know each other, Sophie wondered whether she had found ‘the one’.
But what she didn’t realise was that ‘Tom’ was really a fake profile – preying on Sophie’s quest for love by entangling her in a web of lies and deceit.
After four weeks of talking, Tom was supposedly visiting London for his job as a graphic designer when he told Sophie his bank cards had been blocked.
He asked if she could send over £198 for a last-minute train back to Manchester and he would transfer her the money as soon as he got home.
After a month of getting to know each other, Sophie agreed and sent over the cash. Just minutes later, Tom blocked her.
“It was around a month into talking and he said he was in London for work,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “He was a graphic designer working for himself.
“One evening I got a message saying, ‘You'll never believe this, as I'm freelance, my bank has blocked my cards as I've been receiving international monies from clients, so annoying when you're at the station!'
“I didn't even think. I was like, ‘Oh my God, are you okay? Can I do anything?’
“His response was pretty genuine. He went on to say, ‘I couldn't possibly ask you to deal with this mess, I'm trying to get hold of my brother who is away to send me some money’.
“After a month of talking and really getting to know each other, I just replied, ‘Ahh that’s fine, how much do you need? I can send it across and you can transfer it back to me when you’re home.
“He said as it was a last-minute train, it would be £198 for him to get home. I did think it was weird, but I was so blinded by the connection we had. Once I sent it, he replied saying ‘thanks so much’ and blocked me.”
Sophie says she has been left “devastated” by the scam – with the incident putting her off online dating altogether.
“I want other women to be aware of this,” she continued. “But also do not send money. I feel like it's my own fault, but at the same time, these people shouldn't be allowed.
“He was definitely my type – dark hair, strong manly features with a nice length of beard. We started talking and within a few hours I thought he was definitely a nice guy.
“I'm not really the type to get on FaceTime but we exchanged voice notes and he seemed really genuine. It just didn’t cross my mind that it could be fake.
“I was devastated and it's definitely put me off online dating. I just feel very lied to and deceived which is silly as we only spoke for a month or so.”
Research conducted by data experts Geonode recently found romance scams are at an all-time high – with those aged between 18 and 29 being most at risk.
The data, which was gathered by figures published by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, found that romance scams cost Brits an astonishing £97 million each year on average.
The research found that men are four times more likely to be scammed compared to women, with scammers using Tinder to target victims the most.
Manchester, Brighton and Edinburgh were also revealed as scamming hot spots, with those areas having more romance scam reports than anywhere else in the UK.
A Tinder spokesperson said: "We are saddened to hear of anyone who has fallen victim to a romance scam when seeking a real connection. We have a zero-tolerance policy on this type of behaviour and are constantly monitoring our platform to detect and remove any suspicious profiles.
"We take our members’ safety seriously. If a member contacts us to report any bad online or offline behaviour, our team carefully reviews the report and takes the necessary action to remove any inappropriate profile from our platform. If a crime has been committed, we encourage members to report it to local law enforcement.
"Our dedicated team will cooperate with law enforcement if they are contacted directly.
"We also encourage our members to review our safety tips, which can be found on our website and accessed through the app."
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