An Irish blogger fell victim to an online scam where a scammer pretended to be single on a dating site and took illicit news photos from him.
Cork’s Darragh Fleming has opened up about “easily one of the most stressful days of my entire life” after falling victim to an “utter catfish fraud” being blackmailed by online scammers, reports The Mirror.
The author and award-winning mental health blogger became the target of an online dating app scammer who convinced a Cork man to upload intimate photos which were later used as a bargaining chip when the scammer tried to extort money from him.
Darragh shared his story in support of hundreds and thousands of other Irish people who fell victim to similar “terrifying” crimes.
When he found out he had been scammed yesterday, he said “It was a really tough day but I think it’s important to make this issue known to people so they can be on the lookout for it,” reports The Mirror.
Darragh received a message from a scammer posing as a Cork woman named “Tracy”.
“This wasn’t a generic email scam, it was much more targeted than that. It was far more invasive. For a couple of weeks, I was chatting to what I thought was a local woman on a dating app. We were chatting and that was fine and then after a couple of weeks she suggested that we move to Snapchat, which isn’t unusual – it wouldn’t be my first port of call, but it’s not unusual,” he told The 96FM Opinion Line this morning, reports The Mirror.
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