The con artist who pretended to be a woman on dating apps preyed on men with disabilities.

Barcelona"They were looking for friendship or a relationship, and there was a phase where they were pressured to send money or kept on premium-rate numbers for extended periods, and they suffered anxiety because the person they were involved with was having a very difficult time." This is how one of the researchers summarized the method they followed. The accused of defrauding at least six men by pretending to be a woman on dating apps. "Several of those he lured were vulnerable people or people with disabilities, like Àlex," the police officer added, referring to the young man who ended up committing suicide before the phone bills left his family bankrupt. In fact, one of the six victims listed in the case was accompanied by his guardian at a disability support organization when he reported the scam to the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police). This Friday, the young man attended the second and final day of the trial alone, where he explained that he lost between 600 and 800 euros to this scam, which caused him fear and anxiety. "They called me so many times that I had to stay awake all night. They told me they would come to where I lived, that I would receive large fines," he explained to the court. With some variations in each case, the scam always followed the same pattern: the victims knew a girl On the internet—the user always used the same mobile phone but went by different names—he asked for help to quit working for a webcam sex show company. He instructed them to call premium-rate numbers for as long as possible, even though there was no one on the other end of the line. Then messages arrived from another number. In this case, the caller identified himself as a representative of the sex show company and demanded transfers or more calls to avoid a supposed fine incurred as a result of the calls to the premium-rate number. The accused allegedly obtained almost €27,000 in this way, and the prosecution is seeking a sentence for fraud and extortion that could carry a maximum of 11 years in prison.

Sex shows, debts of thousands of euros and a suicide: a 'Tinder scammer' who pretended to be a woman is put on trial

However, the defendant reiterated in his final statement that he was unaware of the deception. Despite the phone lines being registered in his name, he justified signing the documents by claiming it was part of an agreement with two individuals who have not been prosecuted and who, in his opinion, were the ones keeping the money. In the final phase of the trial, his lawyer, Josep Maymó, raised the possibility of a conviction for extortion: he maintains his primary request for the defendant's acquittal, but has also proposed, as a second option, a reduced sentence of one and a half years, considering that the events occurred in 2021 and the case has taken years to reach a trial. The defendant has been in pretrial detention since May 2024, so this option would imply that he would have already served his sentence. The court will have to decide, firstly, whether the deception was sufficient to constitute the crime of fraud. The defense argues that the girls the victims were chatting with did exist, and that they knew at all times they were calling a number starting with 803 and that the call would cost a high amount per minute. The second crime attributed to the accused, extortion, involves messages that later demanded transfers to avoid supposed fines incurred by the calls. "They told me they would take me to court if I didn't make the payments," one of the victims stated. "It is clear that if Àlex decided to end his life, it was as a result of the threats, extortion, and obsessive intimidation directed at him," said the family's lawyer, Marc Foix, in his closing statement.