'I got scammed by a man I met on Tinder - I can't believe I fell for his lies'

For those of us who have used dating apps in the past, we know how it feels to swipe over and over again just for no one to take our fancy.

And when you do get a match, it either never passes the talking stage, you get ghosted or they say something that gives you the ick.

So when Sophie James stumbled upon a tall, dark and handsome man called Tom on Tinder last year, she was immediately stopped in her tracks.

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The 27-year-old, who lives in Manchester city centre, swiped right to show her interest in November 2022 and the pair hit it off right away.

Sophie, who works as a hairdresser in Cheshire, soon learned that Tom had similar interests in film and music and lived just six miles away.

Before long, the pair had exchanged numbers and were talking frequently through voice messages. After a month of getting to know each other, Sophie wondered whether she had found ‘the one’.

But what she didn’t realise was that ‘Tom’ was really a fake profile – preying on Sophie’s quest for love by entangling her in a web of lies and deceit.

After four weeks of talking, Tom was supposedly visiting London for his job as a graphic designer when he told Sophie his bank cards had been blocked.

He asked if she could send over £198 for a last-minute train back to Manchester and he would transfer her the money as soon as he got home.

After a month of getting to know each other, Sophie agreed and sent over the cash. Just minutes later, Tom blocked her.

“It was around a month into talking and he said he was in London for work,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “He was a graphic designer working for himself.

“One evening I got a message