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A British woman, Janet Fordham, has been defrauded of as much as £1 million in a series of online romance scams, according to reporting by The Guardian. An Exeter hearing heard that fraudsters believed to operate across the UK, Germany, the United States and Ghana targeted her over five years, taking her savings and even her home.
Fordham, born in 1954 and aged 69, had worked as a housekeeper and was retired. The hearing said she traveled to Ghana after a man there told her he could help her recover part of her money. Her family and Devon and Cornwall Police said they repeatedly tried to stop her from sending money to the scammers, but she was considered fully lucid and not susceptible to coercion.
Her daughter-in-law, Melanie Fordham, said Janet began using online dating sites in 2017 and met a man who claimed to be a senior sergeant in the British Army, stationed in Syria. The man allegedly said he needed her help to bring gold bars back to the UK and that he would retire and return to Britain.
Melanie Fordham recalled telling her mother-in-law not to send money, adding that the relationship sounded “unbelievable” at first but eventually involved requests for funds. The hearing said invoices showed Fordham withdrew up to £500 a day to stash money before sending cash to her “boyfriend.”
In total, the hearing said she transferred about £150,000 (about 5.3 billion dong). It also heard that she was later duped by another man who allegedly posed as a diplomat.
Melanie Fordham said it was difficult to understand how Janet moved from one scam to another. She said Janet transferred money by bank transfer, postal order, and possibly through a travel agent.
The hearing also noted that Fordham was contacted by a man in Ghana named Kofi, who said he was a specialist and discovered she was being scammed while working at a mobile phone shop. Kofi told her he could help recover the money, and Fordham flew to Accra in October 2022.
Melanie Fordham said she sought legal advice, but because Janet was deemed to have full capacity—even though she was described as having been “brainwashed”—authorities could not intervene. She said Janet left with the belief she could recover part or all of the money.
The hearing indicated that Fordham’s relationship with Kofi appeared to develop into romance, and she agreed to marry him. On Valentine’s Day in 2023, the man was driving her to meet a family member to discuss marriage when the car swerved and overturned.
Fordham did not wear a seat belt and was injured. Devon and Cornwall Police concluded that no third party was involved in the crash. The man admitted to driving violations.
Detective Constable Ben Smith told the hearing that Fordham had been a victim of a chain of scams from 2017 to 2022 and had transferred between £800,000 and £1 million to the scammers. He said she sold her house and land and lived in a caravan in Devon.
Smith added that throughout the investigation, police made efforts to persuade Janet not to contact the fraudsters and not to transfer money to them.
Senior investigator Philip Spinney noted inconsistencies and gaps in the evidence relating to the crash, and said the matter has not been fully examined.
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