A WOMAN who hunts online scam artists has shared how she was duped out of £16,000.
Julie-Anne Kearns, 48, had already dealt with a romance scam in 2022 and never thought she would fall for it again.
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She didn’t grow up with the internet, but soon became hooked in her early 20s to help her keep in touch with friends.
The mum-of-four from Poole, Dorset, built a large following of social media followers and in 2021, as she shared her breast cancer journey online, but sick individuals soon began to take advantage.
She received a Facebook message from a man named Andrew who claimed to work in the military for a Peace Corps mission in Afghanistan — an operation ceased in 1979.
He told Julie-Anne how his wife had passed away and was touched by her own story.
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The pair chatted for weeks, and she revealed she soon grew close to him but one day, he told her his internet was being cut off and asked her to send him gift cards with money on them.
Julie-Anne immediately grew suspicious and cut off contact with him and she shared her story on social media where she realised it was a common romance scam.
She was inundated with messages from people who had gone through the same, and decided to share these stories as a warning to others on her TikTok account, staysafewithmjules.
While working full-time as an NHS healthcare worker, she spent her free time helping to track down scammers.
“One lady had fallen for a soldier and sent him thousands of pounds, but she had a feeling something wasn’t right,” she told The Guardian.
“I discovered the scammer had stolen the identity of a real US soldier who had died in a car crash. She was absolutely devastated. There were dozens more like her.”
As Julie-Anne’s online community grew, more and more scammers tried to target her.
“I began to enjoy leading them along to the point they’d ask for money and send me their bank details – then I could report their bank or crypto account to the police,” she explained.
Dealing with scams on a daily basis, Julie-Anne never thought she’d fall for one again, but last year, she was swindled out of £16,000.
She received a letter from HMRC about her yearly tax rebate which said they’d added extra security to her account and they needed a copy of her passport and driving license.
“It sounds ridiculous now, but because the letter looked identical to ones I’d always received, I sent pictures of my documents to the email provided,” she added.
A few days later, Julie-Anne decided to call HMRC and they confirmed they had already send her the tax rebate.
They investigated the letter and asked her about the bakery she had opened, except Julie-Anne had no idea what they were on about.
“I can’t bake a cake to save my life, Julie-Anne said. “It slowly unravelled that someone had opened a fake business under my name, likely used for money laundering.”
How to protect yourself from scams
BY keeping these tips in mind, you can avoid getting caught up in a scam:
- Firstly, remember that if something seems too good to be true, it normally is.
- Check brands are “verified” on Facebook and Twitter pages – this means the company will have a blue tick on its profile.
- Look for grammatical and spelling errors; fraudsters are notoriously bad at writing proper English. If you receive a message from a “friend” informing you of a freebie, consider whether it’s written in your friend’s normal style.
- If you’re invited to click on a URL, hover over the link to see the address it will take you to – does it look genuine?
- To be on the really safe side, don’t click on unsolicited links in messages, even if they appear to come from a trusted contact.
- Be careful when opening email attachments too. Fraudsters are increasingly attaching files, usually PDFs or spreadsheets, which contain dangerous malware.
- If you receive a suspicious message then report it to the company, block the sender and delete it.
- If you think you’ve fallen for a scam, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use its online fraud reporting tool.
The police were able to get the fake business shut down, but further digging revealed her details were for sale on the dark web.
She found dozens of loan applications made under her name, and while most were rejected, they had ruined her credit score.
Then, she received a letter taking her to court for the non-payment of a £16,000 loan, which left her sick to her stomach.
Thankfully, the loan was written off as Julie-Anne could prove it was a scam, but she’s had to change all of her personal details to stop scammers using her information.
At first, Julie-Anne was worried about sharing her story but has now shared it on social media to help others avoid it.
“Despite knowing it will continue to make me a target, I’ll keep running my social media pages hunting down scammers – my experience proves how important it is,” she said.
