Stolen pics of real Danish ship captain aid online fraud

Stolen pics of real Danish ship captain aid online fraud
Kent Acott 1 November 2018 https://thewest.com.au/news/crime/stolen-pics-of-real-danish-ship-captai...

Capt. Thomas Lindegaard Madsen is frustrated by the ongoing misuse of his photographs to create false identities.
A WA woman has been duped out of more than $10,000 in a romance scam featuring stolen social media pictures of a real Danish ship captain.

The scam is understood to have tricked thousands of women around the world, with local consumer protection officials fearing there may be more WA victims.

Claiming to be Capt. Thomas Steve, the fraudster initially contacted the woman on Instagram in February before continuing their conversations on the online conferencing service Google Hangouts.

The woman was lured into sending money for his “daughter’s birthday” and “school activities”.

A few weeks later, she was coaxed into transferring more than $9000 from her bank to receive jewellery that the fraudster claimed to have sent through the company Westline Delivery.

The woman, who was 58 at the time and only wants to be known as Fay, said the scam had taken a financial and emotional toll.

“I felt very depressed and naïve,” she said. “I lost my trust in people. He was quite convincing and it seemed like the real thing. It was a huge lesson for me and I hope other women will be more cautious, especially if anyone asks for money.”

Fay said it was important to avoid becoming isolated or secretive about online relationships.

“Chat to the person by video, such as on Skype, to make sure they look like their profile picture,” she said. “Don’t hand over any money at all, no matter how emotional or intimidated you feel. In the end, you can’t buy love.”

Speaking from Copenhagen yesterday, the “real” Capt. Thomas Lindegaard Madsen said he was frustrated by the ongoing misuse of his photographs to create false identities.

“Apparently mine is one of the most copied profiles on the internet,” he said. “I receive a lot of messages from people who think I’m the person they’ve been talking to.”

Capt. Madsen said that, over the past two years, he had been contacted by thousands of women across Europe, Japan, China and Australia checking the bona fides of the fraudsters.

He tried to answer them all “but there were not enough hours in the day”.

Instead, he has pinned a warning to his Facebook page, encouraging women to ask for a video chat when talking to strangers and never to send money. He also points out that he is gay, happily married to a man and has no children.

Consumer Protection Commissioner David Hillyard urged consumers to stay vigilant online, particularly with people overseas.

“In WA alone, more than $2.6 million has been lost in dating and romance scams already this year,” Mr Hillyard said. “Alongside the financial losses are the significant emotional impacts for victims of the deception, as well as people who are misrepresented online.”