Warwickshire woman exposes hundreds of romance fraudsters

A woman has described how she exposed hundreds of romance fraudsters online.

Becky Holmes set up a Twitter account to string along scammers who messaged her under the pretence of starting a relationship before they began asking for money.

Her account, which has attracted over 100,000 followers, shares the messages she has received from scammers.

She has also written a book, featuring testimonies from others who had been duped into sending money.

Titled Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You, the book also tells the story of one lady who lost £120,000 and had to remortgage her house to pay it back.

Ms Holmes, from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire said she had been inspired to set up a Twitter account in lockdown, having sent scammers "nonsensical" messages.

"I told one of them that I had more aubergines than Judi Dench," she said.

"I told somebody else that I came from Neptune, you know all of these things that you think they would pick up on."

But despite her responses, she said the ruse had always ended by fraudsters asking for money.

She described victims who had been targeted as "incredibly clever and articulate people" who had been made to think they were in a relationship with those they had helped.

"One thing that I find really disappointing, is society's view that romance fraud victims are stupid," she added.

A report from West Midlands Police had previously said the region had lost £2.8m to romance fraud, with 347 reported victim in 2021.

But Ms Holmes insists the true scale and statistics have been underreported.

"The main reason is, because people are ashamed, they feel stupid, they feel embarrassed.

"It's unacceptable that we have made people that way."