A victim from the Oakham area has fallen victim to 'romance fraud' and reportedly lost £70,000.

Oakham Police have told the Rutland Neighbourhood Watch website that sometime between August 4 and October 20 the victim met the suspect on the Friends2App and was later was asked to switch to 'Hang Outs'.

The statement continued: "Suspect posed as orthopaedic surgeon working for UN in Syria. Requested money to buy him out of his contract, obtained £70,000. All crime is painful, this is particularly so."

A spokesman for Leicestershire Police told Nub News: "We can confirm we have received a report relating to an allegation of 'romance fraud'. Enquiries are at an early stage and officers are liaising with the complainant to establish the full circumstances surrounding the report. It has been crimed on our system and enquiries are ongoing."

The Rutland Neighbourhood Watch website also warned 'romance fraud' is a growing problem, with fraudsters being extremely plausible, creating fake accounts on social media platforms so their details can be searched and matched, then spending time to build up 'friendship' and gather information.

"They will utilise many accessible online research tools to explore people's information. Avoid sharing too many personal details; revealing your full name, date of birth, or full home address may lead to your identity being stolen."

The website further advised: "How can you check if a person is real? Ask to see a picture of them and then ask for them to send you another photo of themselves posing with their thumbs up or waving, like a form of two factor authentication this is hard to do if it's not an original picture"

"Never respond to any requests to send money, or have money transferred into your account by someone you don't know and trust. These types of requests should always raise a red flag. If something feels wrong, then it is usually right to question it.

advertisement

"Pick a reputable dating website or app and use the built-in messaging service. Fraudsters will try to quickly switch to social media or texting so there's no evidence of them asking you for money."