Chapter 6
Chapter Six
O f course, I had no intention of waiting around for Leo to deign to call me, especially as I wasn’t completely convinced that he was actually going to, given the note of reluctance in his voice when we parted.
There was no time to waste. Every hour we dallied, could be another hour the bogus Brian James caused further heartbreak and duped someone out of their life savings.
I would never forgive myself if another person suffered because I’d failed to get a move on.
Being a librarian, I decided more research was in order.
Knowledge is power, after all. I spent the rest of my weekend wading through local newspaper archives to see if I could detect whether there was a growing trend of scammers targeting people in Oxford.
I also listened to as many true crime podcasts as I could find on the subject of romance fraudsters, educating myself about their techniques and learning the methods that law enforcement used to bring them down.
It was a demoralising experience, and frightening to see in black and white how the odds were so stacked in the favour of the wrongdoer, but I refused to let myself get downcast about it.
I was taking positive action and that was what was important.
Then I turned my attention to teaching myself some of the practical skills I was going to need for our investigation.
One of the first things I learnt was how to do a reverse image search of the photos Scammer Brian had sent me, kicking myself for not having protected myself with this basic bit of research before.
It took a little bit of digging, but I managed eventually to track down the originals.
They belonged to a genuine British army officer who’d received a medal for his brave action in saving a family after an earthquake in the Middle East. Not only had the fake Brian stolen the images, he’d also pinched part of the man’s circumstances to form his back story.
He must have been rubbing his hands together with glee to come across a scenario so perfect that it looked like it’d been intentionally designed to reel in gullible targets like me.
Once I had a name for the actual individual in the pictures, I set about searching for his social media profiles. Thankfully his DMs were open, so I sent a quick message warning him that his identity had been stolen by a fraudster. A response pinged back within minutes.
Sadly this isn’t the first DM I’ve had about this.
Thanks for the heads up though. I’ve stopped posting pictures online, but there’s not a lot I can do about the images that are already out there.
The police advised me to point victims in the direction of Action Fraud. My wife and I hope you’re okay.
It was a kind message, although the clumsy reference to the fact that he was married was rather embarrassing, like he felt the need to warn me off because I had some kind of aura of desperation about me due to falling for a romance fraudster.
I sent what I hoped was a suitably sexless thumbs up emoji in response, but he’d already blocked me.
I briefly considered sending a screenshot of the exchange to the app, but they’d been so dismissive before that I decided it was better to gather more evidence first. It was a small comfort that the police were already aware of the misuse of the photos, but it didn’t help me get any closer to the person who’d misappropriated them.
I wished the army guy had told me which force was involved in the case so I could approach them, but as he’d closed down any means of communication, that was a dead end.
I was halfway through watching The Tinder Swindler on Sunday evening when my phone rang.
‘Is that you, Holmes?’ said a voice that I hadn’t been expecting to hear from so soon. I smiled to myself.
‘Knowing that you dislike the man, I’m rather insulted by your choice of nickname for me,’ I said. ‘Does that make you my Dr Watson, asking obvious questions all the time and catching on a little late?’
‘Definitely not. Okay, I’ll stick to Kat Fisher.’
‘Thanks, Leo Taylor, but as I said before, just Kat will do fine.’
‘You weren’t the only one growing up being teased about their name, you know,’ he said suddenly. ‘I couldn’t move in secondary school without people making splashing sounds.’
‘Splashing sounds? Oh, you mean like a Leo DiCaprio Titanic reference? That’s a bit dark, isn’t it?’
‘That’s kids for you. Although, now I look back, maybe it could also have been a reference to the fact that I was on the swimming team.’
‘Oh, I get it. You brought out the sob story just so you could show off about being a high school athlete? Why am I not surprised? I’m afraid your school days are long over, Leo. It takes more than that to impress me,’ I retorted.
‘Good. You should have high standards.’
I wasn’t quite sure how to take that, so I responded in the spirit of banter.
‘Did you actually say something nice to me? I’m quite overcome with shock. Hold on a minute while I fan myself.’
Leo cleared his throat. ‘I obviously need to up my game. Anyway, what was it that you wanted?’
‘You’re the one who rang me,’ I reminded him with a chuckle. ‘Maybe I should rethink hiring you as a consultant, if this is the standard of analytical thinking I can expect.’
He laughed. ‘Feel free. But be careful with this talk of hiring. If there’s too much more of it, I may actually start charging you for my services.’
‘That’s the sound of me zipping my lips shut and awaiting further news.’
‘An astonishing turn of events. The chatty librarian falls silent for a change.’
I was surprised to hear myself described in such terms. Sure, I was relaxed and talkative with my friends and library regulars who I’d known for ages, but being naturally an introvert, I was normally a bit quieter and more cautious with people I’d only recently met.
But Leo seemed to have the knack for overriding my usual cautious reserve and bringing out a bolder side of my personality.
‘Anyway, so, the actual reason I rang was that I’ve come up with a plan of action,’ he continued.
‘I’m listening,’ I said, although in my head went something along the lines of ridiculing him for imagining that I’d been sitting on my backside doing nothing all weekend.
‘If you’re still serious about getting to the bottom of who’s behind this scam, I think the safest way of doing it is to continue your contact with the alleged Mr Brian James online. You haven’t responded to his message asking you for money, have you?’
‘No. But he’ll have seen from his notifications that I’ve read it.’
‘Just say you dropped your phone shortly after reading his message and it took a while to get it fixed, or something like that. It sounds like a plausible reason for leaving a guy on read without sending a response.’
‘Aw, Leo, is that the excuse girls normally give you?’ I couldn’t help myself.
‘Ha, ha, very funny.’
‘So, I get back in touch, and then what? We pick up where we left off?’
‘Exactly,’ said Leo. ‘Chat with him, flirt with him, continue the conversation as if nothing has happened. If he thinks that he’s got you in his grasp again, he might lower his guard and let something slip.’
‘That sounds like an awfully big “if” Won’t he just lose interest in me and focus on his other targets when it becomes apparent that I’m not going to give him any money? What would be the point in investing any more time in me?’
‘You’ll need to string him along. Make it seem like you’re about to pay out, but there’s always some very plausible reason why it doesn’t happen. But next time, it definitely will.’
‘In other words, I should use his playbook against him, give him a taste of his own medicine. I appreciate the irony in that.’ But what I didn’t like the sound of was how unlikely it was that we’d actually get anywhere with this approach.
‘Do you honestly think this will work? It feels like I’d be leaving too much to chance.
Isn’t there something more proactive we could do?
I’ve already worked out the source of his stolen pictures.
Couldn’t we try to build a profile of the real person behind the catfish?
The choices he’s made must tell us something about him. ’
Leo sighed. ‘Let me guess, another pearl from one of your detective novels?’
‘There’s no need to talk down to me.’ I bristled, standing up from the sofa in an outrage that wouldn’t have been out of place in an Austen novel.
‘That was not my intention. It’s just there’s very little to go on right now, and I’m trying to be realistic.
Unless you’re happy sharing the contents of the messages you exchanged with your virtual boyfriend, which might give us some insight into what’s going on in his mind, this is my best suggestion.
And you did agree that you’d listen to my advice. ’
I considered my options while I wandered aimlessly around the room.
Letting Leo read Brian’s messages and, worse, my replies to them would be horribly exposing– the opening banter which had quickly moved into flirtation and then into shared confidences of long-term dreams. It might allow Leo to build a profile of the scammer, but it would also enable him to learn far too much about me.
‘Okay, I’ll have a go at picking up where I left off with Brian,’ I said without enthusiasm, berating myself for taking the cowardly approach.
‘Great, I’ll leave you to get on with it. Let me know how he responds, and we’ll go from there,’ said Leo.
‘Wait, aren’t you going to help me write the messages? If this is the approach you took when you were in the police, then you’ll know the best way of phrasing things so that he falls into our trap.’
It must have been obvious from my tone that I didn’t believe that this was how he’d carried out fraud investigations when he was in the force.