A Fool And His Money

[Ms DD]

Not content with being scammed once he does the same thing again. Even worse he does not realise he has been taken for a fool.

 

Web love quest man loses £16,000

 

 

David Hodgkinson said he was fed up being a single man

A lonely man is £16,000 poorer after sending money overseas to two women he fell in love with over the internet, in the hope they would join him in the UK.

David Hodgkinson's borrowed money from his elderly mother and re-mortgaged his home in Margate, Kent, but neither woman showed up at the airport.

 

The 48-year-old electrical engineer has admitted he was naive, but said he was desperate to find a partner.

 

"Emotionally, it's given me a lot of depression," he said.

 

Mr Hodgkinson, who is a full-time carer for his 86-year-old mother, turned to online dating after he became fed up with being single.

 

There's many times that I literally cry my heart out

 

David Hodgkinson

 

He first struck up a relationship with Natalia, from Russia, who he met through a dating website.

 

He sent her more than £10,000 to pay for her travel and a visa so she could be with him.

 

He went to meet her at Heathrow Airport four times, but she never arrived.

 

"I feel no ill in my heart. I did really love her," Mr Hodgkinson told the BBC.

 

He then turned to a Christian dating website and met Amada, from Senegal.

 

He sent her £6,000, but was again left waiting in the arrivals lounge of the airport.

 

"There's many times that I literally cry my heart out and there are times when I felt I didn't want to live any more," he said.

 

'Never listened'

 

His mother, Constance, has been forced to take out a loan to help repay his debts.

 

"I did tell him off about keep going to Heathrow," she said.

 

"In my heart I knew they wouldn't ever turn up... but he never listened."

 

Experts have warned that the internet should be treated with great care.

 

Gill Stephens, from Experian Consumer Affairs, said she suspected photos of beautiful women probably came from "a seedy man in a back room".

 

"It's very easy to get carried away on the internet... but you don't really know who you're talking to."

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/6565125.stm

 

Why on earth would anyone go to the press and tell them how daft they'd been?