‘SILVER FOX’ MINISTER LOVE SCAM
Suave MP’s pix used to dupe Brit out of £80k
A BRITISH woman has been swindled out of £80,000 by a con artist who uses pictures of a foreign defence minister.
The scammer, going by the name Murphy Townsend, duped Sharon Bulmer after sending her a Facebook message saying he was “lonely”.
But after nearly two years claiming to be a US soldier who needed money to see her, it has emerged the pictures he was using were of silver fox Latvian defence minister Artis Pabriks, also the country’s deputy prime minister.
Authorities in Latvia say they are aware of more than 100 fake profiles featuring snaps of the suave politician.
Sharon, inset, is still coming to terms with being conned. She said:
“He asked me to help him. I was a fool, but these are the things we do for love.”
The person behind the account claimed to be Murphy, a 56-year-old man from Washington DC with a 17-year-old daughter. He said he was serving with the US Army in Syria.
Sharon, 51, ended her relationship with her partner of 29 years to “start a new life” with him.
“Murphy” first got in touch with her in May 2020 via Facebook.
She said: “He said he was lonely, he’s serving in Syria, his wife had passed away and he wanted someone to speak to. He said he had been watching me on Facebook, I don’t know what that means.”
Sharon added: “Murphy was sweet. I felt loved in a way – I felt cared for.” They never had any video calls as he said he wasn’t allowed to at his base. In October 2020, he started asking for weekly payments of up to £1,000 to cover administration fees and to “buy him out of his contract”. Requests kept coming, with Murphy asking for £5,000 last February for a UK trip. In the end he claimed he lost his plane ticket. Finally suspecting a scam, Sharon contacted the US Army, who confirmed there was no such person among their ranks. She is now in £37,000 worth of debt after sending him funds totalling £80,000. Sharon, of Manchester, wants to stop others being victims of romance fraud. She said: “I want to help anyone out there to not be taken by these idiots and try and get on with my life.” Latvia’s Defence Office said: “Unfortunately we’ve been facing this situation for a long time. We frequently receive screenshots from people contacted by fraudsters. So far we’ve collected more than 100 fake accounts.”