ham” people entering illegally. thousands of migrants from central america have joined the caravan gathering on the mexican us border. now, panorama. tonight on panorama, we investigate the criminals who con people looking for love. it was the same name and the same picture. i actually went, how could i have been so stupid? catfish. the romance fraudsters who exploit the lonely. has she asked you for money? yeah, i sent her a little bit of money, yeah. ‘cos i'm worried, roy, that you're being scammed again by... oh no, no, i'm not, i'm not. kathryn, i love you. we set a trap for the criminals. as we uncover a crime that takes us around the world. it was not me, i did not do it. if you date someone online,

they can be anywhere in the world, and that can be risky. organised gangs of fraudsters are just a click away. and they'll say anything to get your cash. most of the criminal gangs are based in africa. but their networks spread right round the world. and many of their victims are in the uk. hello, are they safe, how can i help? the criminals are known as catfish and they hide behind fake profiles. we are pretty sure that it is a scam.

i have come to a company in kent that tracks them down. they're set up as a business basically. they're criminal gangs, different people working together in order to make sure that the process seems really realistic and that the story works together. did you find another facebook page? that's the facebook page. many victims are too embarrassed to go to the police. but there are still ten catfish crimes reported in the uk every day. the average victim loses £15,000. we do believe that you have been the victim of catfishing, 0k? because this gym isn't in nigeria, it is in america. when you have to go back to individuals and explain to them this person doesn't exist, they're not real, um that... that is really, really hard to do, and it's extremely hard for victims to, to understand that as well. i wanted to try and find somebody, it'sjust nice to have

somebody to talk to. roy twiggs' life has been destroyed by a catfish. oh, i don't know. he was cheated out of his life savings. now he's broke. i've lost everything. when the two police officers knocked on the door theyjust said had i been sending money to this account? i said yes. they said, well it's fraud. she's not who she says she is. roy met the fraudster on an online dating site. she sent him these stolen pictures and called herself donna. i thought we were in love with each other. we were gonna get together, get married and that would have been it. i had no suspicion whatsoever. they talked for weeks before

she asked for money for a building project in malaysia. the money seemed to be for plausible things, when you're sending £4,000, £3,000, £5,000 and such like, it sort of all adds up. after i'd worked everything out, i'd actually paid her the best part of £100,000. roy should be enjoying a comfortable retirement. instead, he's paying off creditors each month using his pension. i'm broke. you're whitewashed, you're totally devastated, you're, you're finished. you... you just don't want to be bothered anymore. i want to try to catch a catfish.

so i've set up my own fake dating profile. women are more likely to be targeted, so i'm kathryn hunter — a divorcee looking for love. i've asked laura to check out the bait i'm using. here's one of her horse... have a look at the profile and see what you think. hopeless romantic, that's great. divorced. looking for the one, looking for love. earns a lot of money, so that's very, very good. i think they'll see a very financially independent female. how long do you think it will take before a catfish approaches kathryn? i think it will start very quickly, they'll bombard you with messages and then after about a week they'll start asking for money. asking for cash? yep. catfish often pretend

to be in the military. i told nobody about the money cause i was so ashamed. val mckie lost £8,000 to a man she thought was a major in the british army. it's hard to explain what the shame is. it's like when you think you've done something really, really wrong. the military cover story gives catfish an excuse not to meet in person. this is a picture of him. looks like he's somewhere in a warzone, somewhere in the desert. he's got his army uniform on. he's consigned by the official secrets act, so i wouldn't want to get him into trouble by asking him questions. it's the perfect cover story, isn't it? totally, absolutely totally, because you can just sort of say, i can't tell you. val chatted online to her soldierfor six months. oh, it was absolutely blissful. and i could, and i still remember that feeling as i'm talking to you now.

it's like, it was magical. it was absolutely magical. that's how i felt. val thought the money she gave him was for their future together. but then she found a warning online from a woman who had been scammed by a fake soldier. it was the same name and the same picture. and ijust went, i actually went, "how could i have been so stupid?" the whole thing has been a con. you've basically got to deal with the sadness of it. it's not long before our catfish begin to bite. one of them is also claiming to be a soldier. right, things are moving pretty quickly. i have been speaking to the guy who says his name is paul richard in the us military.

he's messaging me now on whatsapp. and just after a few messages he's saying, "i love you, i want to make you my future wife." i am having my lunch and this guy paul richard, the us soldier, won't stop messaging me. he's relentless. i have said to him kathryn's on her lunch break but he won't stop messaging. and you can see just how much they bombard people with messages. and it's just non—stop. we can prove the man who calls himself paul richard is lying. this is the photo he's sent me. but a search of the image online shows it's someone else. what is up fam and welcome to another exciting video. it's a real american marine who's fed up with catfish using his pictures to con people. these guys will say anything

to anybody and lie about you know... i need some money cause my son's in the hospital. my wife died, i am a widower. they will lie to you through their teeth. iran into so many messages. even if i show them proof that it's not me who is scamming them and they still don't believe it because they are so deeply in love. romance frauds are thought to cost victims around £1 billion a year in america alone. but the catfish are hardly ever caught. the most successful investigation was here in gulfport, mississippi. there were thousands of victims. it all started with a lonely woman who became suspicious of her online admirer. he would say things like he wanted

to meet me and i said, "that would be good." and, but the day never came so at one time i told him, you know, "if we was gonna meet, we needed to meet." the man was trying to trick nitha into being a mule. he wanted her to send items from america to south africa. it started with a package. when i got it, he said, "don't open it. do not open it, just sign it. and put a sticker onto it and mail it." the box contained mobile phones, but nitha didn't send it. she called the authorities and they launched an undercover investigation. these are some of the yahoo boys, the targets of our investigation. they're the catfish network.

absolutely, yes it is. for 18 months, agent todd williams posed as nitha online. so you were pretending to be a sixty—six year old woman? yes, that was, uh, difficult at times. the narratives that they use, they read just like a romantic novel. they're very good with the words that they choose. they start off very slow and rapidly build an emotional relationship. these are all the prearranged narratives that the yahoo boys would utilize, you'll see it's all sequentially numbered, two, three, and it's all sequentially developed. there's stuff here like ?i‘ve no words to describe the way i feel about you, "our love is a strong love," and they basically just copy and paste that, i guess?

absolutely, and you'll see the sequence on how the actual emotional relationship evolves. this is how one individual is able to manage a relationship with 50 different people simultaneously. and that's how organized they are, they have these scripts they work off basically? absolutely, yes. the investigation led to the arrest of four american mules and 12 nigerian fraudsters. the gang leader was sentenced to 115 years in a us jail. how does it feel reading this now knowing what you know? not good. it makes you, sort of, a little bit angry. because i'd just like to hit him, you know, just one good hit. make you feel better. i've been messaging my catfish for a week. 0ur fake american soldier now wants to talk on the phone. hello.

so my producer is going to play the part of my online persona, kathryn hunter. yeah, i can't wait. i'm really excited for that day. he's told us he's in dubai, but he's phoning from a nigerian number. of course. yes, give me a kiss. as well as the declarations of love, there's a hint of the scam to come.

he claims his son is going into hospital in america. goodnight. we think our catfish might use that story to ask for money. well, that's was a pretty intense first date. amazing, that's the first time we have heard a catfish's voice. i'm really surprised that he actually spoke to us over the phone. yeah, so am i. definitely not from america. catfish never want to let their victims go. if you've been hooked once, you're more likely to be targeted again. have you got a picture of sherry? yeah, i've got a picture of sherry.

that's her. yeah. after losing around £100,000, roy thinks he's finally met a genuine love interest online. someone claiming to be an american called sherry. i've never spoken to her. you've never spoken to sherry before? no, it were... we used to... just message. she calls you a king as well. that's what donna used to call you. yeah, yeah. does that not make you suspicious that this person might be a fraudster as well? no, no, no. it's a... it's how the americans talk. i've spoken to a few americans that call you the king and this, that and the other. on your calendar, i noticed that you've ticked that you paid sherry £500 a few weeks back.

yeah. so, you have sent her money? yeah i sent her a little bit of money, yeah. but that was, that was to sort something out and er... so far, that's been about it. because i'm worried, roy, that you're being scammed again by... oh, no. no, i'm not. i'm not. it's the same story isn't it? someone you've met online asking you for money, asking you for help. yeah, well, it's. .. you haven't met them in person. it's...it's got to a point where i've said enough is enough, you know? and all right, £500 is not er, nearly £100,000 is it? you know what i mean? but it's still a lot of money to give to a stranger, isn't it? yeah, but they reckon that drugs and drink are big killers.

yeah, they are, but loneliness is a bigger killer than any of them. and trying to not be lonely is... is what i do every day. catfish exploit our emotions to get money. 0ur fake american soldier claims his son's illness has got worse. he needs cash for the hospital treatment. the messages are coming through even now. he's saying i can't afford to lose my only son. i'm crying over here. i'd be grateful if you could help me out with this. and we actually haven't replied to him in a few hours and he said it looks like someone's not in the mood to talk seriously today. so he's getting pretty angry that we haven't replied. you can tell he really wants to try

and get this money from us as soon as possible. it's time to make another phone call. right now, the boy is not in good condition. the catfish asks us to send money to his son's nanny in america. so when are you going to send the money? yeah, send me the name. i'm just telling you i'm going to try and do it as soon as possible. thank you very much. kathryn, i love you. iam crying. oh my god. i don't want to lose my son. you are not going to lose him. he's my life. moments later he sends us details of the nanny. text message beep.

here we go. marcy kovak, address... oh, yes, we've got an address. it's a breakthrough... so, we have got a name and an address. ..because it's a real person in america. the name is marcy krovac. we don't know if she's working as a money mule for the catfish, or is a victim herself. the only way to find out is to send her a small amount of cash to see if she'll collect it. marcy krovak lives here. slippery rock, pennsylvania. population 3,000. we've sent the money by western union. marcy will have to show her id

to pick up the cash. we think she'll come here to collect it. 0k. no sign of her yet? not yet. we wait... and wait... and wait. but marcy doesn't show up. so we ask our catfish if we can speak to her directly. he puts us in contact with a woman he says is marcy. but it's just another lie. hello? i contacted her — supposedly marcy — and then a nigerian woman came on the phone pretending to be marcy. laughter. so, it's clearly not marcy. yeah, that's really strange. sounds like our catfish paul does

not want us to speak to the money mule in person, and this stakeout is getting more surreal. we've spent three days in slippery rock, waiting for marcy to appear. and then we find out our money has been collected 400 miles away in new york. by someone using marcy's id. her details are being used to launder money. but marcy refuses to talk to us about it. so i catch up with her as she's heading to work. what do you want? i have no idea who this gentleman, even. i'm from the bbc‘s panorama programme. i have no idea who they are. i would like to talk to you about some money. do you know any fraudsters in nigeria? no.

i've talked to a gentlemen, but i've never picked up money. nothing. i can show you every text message. can we see your messages? marcy has text messages from our catfish. they show he wanted her to pick up the cash we sent. then this one says... well, it says, "marcy, i need you to get a hold of a fund at western union. it was sent in your name." "go straight to western union and pick it up." and i said, "i'm not happy." and then "why" and i said, "what the (bleep) is the money for?" so this person asked you to pick up money for him from western union. yeah, yeah. and i didn't. it's confusing because there's such a thin line between innocent victims and money mules. marcy gives us a credit card in her name that the catfish sent her. i've had it for probably over a month or so. he's asked me to get like a thousand dollars in a hundred dollar increments as amazon cards. catfish often use giftcards to launder money. but marcy says she didn't buy any. how long have you been speaking to this person for?

since june. marcy agrees to meet me again later the same day. and in some texts he calls you honey. it seems like you might have been in a relationship with him. he...he thinks he's in a relation, you know. do you think you're in a relationship with him? no. she says she's been used by our catfish too. did you not think it was suspicious someone sending you a credit card? did you...? did you not...? yeah, i thought... ..go to the police? no. why not? ijust wasn't thinking, you know. i'm very upset. i'm very scared. i never was going to touch that card. never used that card. and i never was going to go to western union and pick that money up. but now somebody's used my info and gone and picked it up. it was not me. i did not do it. please find this person. marcy's out of her depth and i'm not

sure she understands what's been happening. there's no doubt it's our catfish who's really to blame. and we think we have finally tracked him down. the data on one of his pictures has led us to his real social media account. his name is danieljoseph 0kechukwu. and this photo of him... ..was taken here. a small shopping area about 80 miles from lagos in nigeria. 0ur catfish used to run this barber shop here in ibadan. he's even got a picture of himself on the door. but it's closed and we have been told it's been shut for a few weeks now. and no one here seems to know where he is. we spend two days trying to find him in the local area. but in the end, the only way

we can get to him... hi, hello. ..is by phoning as kathryn hunter again. mr 0kechukwu ? i am from the bbc‘s panorama programme and i have been looking for you. 0h. you are a romance fraudster, aren't you mr 0kechukwu ? wow. why do you scam innocent people like this? stop saying that (bleep). my name is paul richard. that's interesting because i have spoken to the real person whose picture you are using. your name is mr 0kechukwu. danieljoseph 0kechukwu. and we are standing outside your barber shop right now. are you an american soldier? so why do you have a nigerian accent? you trick people into falling in love and then you take their money? it's all right, we can stop pretending now.

why do you scam people out of money? why do you do it? and he's hung up. daniel joseph 0kechukwu later called back and admitted he's a catfish. he apologised and said he was only doing it because his barber shop had failed. and then, he asked us for more money. roy has finally realised that his last online girlfriend — sherry — was not all she seemed either. are things with sherry finished now, roy? yeah, it's... well, what's the point? i think all sherry is, is a... just a money grabber.

i mean, sherry isn't real, is she? she's not a real person. 0h, she's probably real and one thing and another but i... i think as far as i'm concerned, she's not being truthful with me. today he's got a date with a new woman, who contacted him online. she's more in my age group as well. he's convinced that this time she's for real. do you think, roy, deep down that you're just looking for someone to love, anyone? well, i don't know. i just want somebody to be with, to talk to. i'm not, uh... well, i'm not a brilliant catch. and that's all there is to it. roy has lost everything to women he's met online. his new hungarian girlfriend

is supposed to be arriving. but roy has waited in vain before. where are you? i can see you. today, someone has actually turned up. she's here, she's here! and elizabeth has even paid for her own ticket. 0k, good. this time seems to be different for roy. but there are so many lonely people

looking for love online. and that means there'll always be more victims for catfish. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: american interests first. president trump says he'll stand by saudi arabia despite the killing of the journalist, jamal khashoggi. the president's lawyer says he's given unprecedented co—operation to the inquiry into whether the trump election team colluded with russia, and says again it's time for the investigation to end. ajudge in texas rules illegal migrants to the us can claim asylum. 0ur reporters have spent the day on both sides of the us—mexico border. the youngest ever goodwill ambassador for the un children's fund, 14—year—old tv actor millie bobbie brown,

becomes a diplomat.