Sue Hall claimed she fully trusted her dating partner when she discovered he had known her dad.
This woman, when swindled out of her life savings by a male she had met via a free online dating site, revealed that her life is now in ruins.
63-year old Sue Hall from Croydon said she handed out nearly £75,000 to David Cook after he related stories to her about his children getting into problems. Gravesend resident Cook, at 65, has now been sentenced to two years in jail for fraud.
The pair came to know each other through a free dating website and Hall had discovered that Cook had known her deceased father. Cook and Mr Hall, had both worked as comedians in Kent.
Hall said one of the reasons why she had begun to have faith in Cook was the relationship he had had with her father. This had in the end led to emotional blackmail, when she began handing out cash to him in 2009.
Hall stated that Cook had provided a variety of reasons as to why he wanted money, like initiating a new business and stopping his son from having to part with his home.
Ms Hall finally reported Cook to a police officer after finding out that a cheque he had written was fraudulent.
She revealed that this incident had completely ruined her life and she would now have to sell her house. She said he was ever so nice and he loved to crack jokes, but in the end he made her cry.
Mary Balfour, who runs an introduction agency, says that if a person is asked for some money by somebody they had met through an online dating website they should flatly refuse and stop all email and other forms of communication and tell the site of the incident.
