If you've ever tried to find love online, then you'll know that it isn't always easy, and you spend hours on the dating app swiping past dozens of people who just aren't your type.
But when Sophie James opened Tinder in November last year, she thought she'd hit the jackpot when she found the profile of a handsome man named Tom, who looked to be everything she wanted in a partner.
The 27-year-old woman, from Manchester, swiped right on Tom to show her interest, and although the pair seemed to hit it off straight away, Sophie was oblivious to the scheme Tom was planning.
Sophie said she and Tom exchanged numbers and chatted frequently through voice messages about their shared love of film and music, and after a month of getting to know each other, the woman began thinking she may have found "the one".
But just four weeks after they began talking, Sophie learned the truth about Tom - that his entire profile was fake, and only created to scam victims out of cash.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Sophie said Tom had told her he was travelling to London for his job as a graphic designer, but had found that his bank cards had been blocked, so he had no way of paying for his train back to Manchester.
He asked Sophie for £198 for a "last-minute train", and without thinking too much about what she was doing, Sophie agreed and transferred him the cash.
Minutes later, he blocked her number and run off with her money.
She said: "It was around a month into talking and he said he was in London for work. 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."
The scam left Sophie "devastated", and she now wants to raise awareness about scammers on dating apps so that more people are aware of the dangers they can face.
She added: "I want other women to be aware of this. 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."
Manchester Evening News spoke to a Tinder spokesperson about Sophie's incident, and they said their app has a "zero tolerance policy" toward romance scams.
They 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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