A nurse was conned out of tens of thousands of pounds after a "love bombing" social media user posing as Strictly star Giovanni Pernice convinced her to send him money every week for months on end.
CeCee, 44, told how she paid £62,000 to an online fraudster after they contacted her via Facebook posing as the pro dancer. The scamming victim, who has asked to be referred to only by her first name, said she started communicating with the user online after taking her mother to see the celebrity in Inverness last year.
She left a comment on his page after the show, and was stunned after she received a reply from an account posing as Giovanni, who has danced across British TV screens for nearly a decade. After striking up a conversation, the scammer convinced her to send weekly cash instalments of £1,500 for nearly a year.
The conversation started after she received a text from someone posing as the Strictly star (UGC)
CeCee was asked to pay thousands of pounds via gift cards (UGC)Speaking to The Daily Record, CeCee, from Inverness, said she received a response "within 15 minutes" of posting on his Facebook page, adding they started by "chatting about Strictly" before the user "asked me about myself" and the conversation started flowing. She added: "[The conversation] was generally a little bit cheeky, asking if I wanted to pay for their lunch and I was like, ‘No, you’re a celebrity, I’m sure you’ve got plenty of people to pay for your lunch’."
In the months that followed, the user love-bombed her, saying he "wanted to be with me forever", and telling her she was "the perfect woman for him". As their conversations progressed, the impersonator asked CeCee for more money via gift cards with the pretext she would be paying a charity.
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The impersonator turned nasty after they were found out by CeCee (UGC)She said: "Then he asked me to buy him an Amazon voucher for some charity. So I did it. I bought the voucher and sent it. I was constantly buying £1500 worth of vouchers, every week, until this February. Then he said that since my mum loved dancing, he could get me a pass to use for us to go to Strictly for £3200.
"I knew that didn’t sound right. I said I wasn’t going to pay that or transfer any money. He said, ‘Oh, it’s fine. You can buy these vouchers called Steam Vouchers, which is what I did."
When the passes didn't arrive, Cecee said alarm bells started ringing, and she started questioning her relationship with Giovanni's impersonator. After communicating this, the scammer blackmailed her by saying they would tell Cecee's husband - from whom she had recently separated - and coworkers about their relationship.
Her personality "completely changed" as the nasty messages continued, having bee called "ugly", "not good enough" and "nothing" by the vile scammer. CeCee reported the user and their messages to the Strictly star's management, who said this was not Giovanni, and told the nurse to submit a report with the police. She did so, but investigators are yet to discover the culprit. Her bank has investigated and returned £41,000.
Giovanni's management said the texts did not come from the strictly star, and that they would alert the dancer (PA)Detective Chief Inspector Craig Still of CID said: "On Friday, March 8, 2024, we received a report of romance fraud from the Inverness area. Enquiries are ongoing. These criminals seem kind and trustworthy, but they are very skilled at making you believe their feelings are genuine. They will speak to you for long periods of time before asking for financial help. Their aim is only to ever get your money.
"We take all reports of this type of crime seriously and would advise that if anyone has been a victim of this type of crime to report it to Police Scotland on 101."
The Mirror Online has contacted Giovanni Pernice's management for comment.
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