A former catfisher who stole $30,000 from four vulnerable women has highlighted what victims should look out for and why he abandoned his criminal lifestyle.
Christopher Maxwell, 34, from Nigeria, spent six years defrauding women out of thousands of dollars by lying to them.
He targeted unmarried ladies in their 50s and 60s in the United States, claiming to be a member of the United States Army.
Not until he tricked a woman out of $20,000, causing her family to disintegrate and her to plunge into melancholy, did he suddenly feel the need to come clean and alter his behavior.
Mr. Maxwell told Daily Mail Australia, “I told them I wasn’t allowed to make video calls because I was in the military and we weren’t allowed to show where we were.”
Mr. Maxwell stated that his plunge into the world of scamming began while he was a university student, confessing that he struggled to adjust to life away from home to the point that he could not always afford food.
Christopher Maxwell, 34, from Nigeria, spent six years defrauding women out of thousands of dollars by lying to them. Now employed by Social Catfish, he informs potential victims when they are about to be scammed.
“My first year was somewhat difficult, and by the second year I had downloaded a stranger’s Instagram photo to my phone and began texting middle-aged women I met on Tinder,” he explained.
HOW TO STAY AWAY FROM A CATFISHER
Never give anyone you meet online money.
Perform a reverse image search to determine whether their photo and name match.
Demand a video chat or a face-to-face meeting.
Beware of improper grammar
Be wary if someone declares their love for you after never having met you.
The Social Catfish Source
The ladies were frequently divorced and their children had grown and moved away, making them weak and ideal prey for con artists.
Mr. Maxwell stated, “They simply desired a man to love them for the rest of their lives.”
He told the women he was due to be sent overseas and would not have access to his bank account as one of his scams.
Instead, he would request that his victims wire him money into a different account. According to Mr. Maxwell, at first it was only a few hundred dollars, but he eventually conned them out of thousands.
Mr. Maxwell’s lies eventually brought an end to his relationships with all four of the ladies he defrauded.
His final victim was an American woman in 2021, from whom he defrauded $20,000 before she exposed him and refused to pay him any further money.
He stated, “At some point, she became depressed, and her children stopped speaking to her because of me.”
“I began to feel awful, so I called her via video conference and confessed that I had been defrauding her.
“She wept. I believed she was going to block me because of what I had done, but she didn’t.
Mr. Maxwell stated that he promised to repay her, but she refused.
He has not yet repaid any of his victims, but maintains he will once he has amassed sufficient funds.
In 2021, Australians lost a staggering $324 million to online scammers (stock image)
‘I regret doing that,’ he replied.
I had no sentiments for any of the women, and I did not feel regret until I met my final victim.
He stated that his family was unaware that he had been scamming women, and when his victims inquired about his Nigerian accent, Mr. Maxwell explained that he had relocated frequently as a child because his father served in the military.
Mr. Maxwell is currently employed by Social Catfish, a company devoted to eliminating internet scams via reverse search technologies.
In 2021, Australians lost a staggering $324 million to online scammers.
This was an increase from the $176 million lost the previous year.
According to a recent analysis by Social Catfish, the biggest number of Australians who fell victim to fraud between 2019 and 2022 lived in Canberra, followed by the Northern Territory.
»Nigerian cat fisher who is now reformed shares his advice on how to con ladies out of their money«