Achi news desk-
Two months ago, I shared the strange story of a man who tried to lure me into a romance scam on Instagram — claiming to be a wealthy oil rig engineer from California, currently working off the coast of Scotland.
“Bobby Brown” told me he was a divorced father of a nine-year-old. His Instagram profile showed Bobby hiking mountains, standing next to a river, standing in front of sunlit vineyards.
He started love-bombing me every day with more flattering messages and within weeks, he proposed.
“I want you to be FINE and I want to love you to the end of the world,” she wrote.
I called him out in the end. Told him that I was a journalist, that I had never believed that he was the man in the photos and asked for an interview.
Him admit that it really is 26-year-old Nigerian. He claimed he lived in poverty and said he preyed on women using photos stolen from an attractive man’s Facebook page.
- Got a story you want to investigate? Contact Erica and the Go Public team
But the story was just beginning.
Two weeks after it was broadcast on CBC TV, an email arrived in our Go Public inbox.
“I am … shocked,” the sender wrote. “See me on your news!”
Turns out, the real Bobby Brown – or at least, the man in the scammer’s photos – is Sigi Fink, a weatherman from Italy, who works for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation.
When someone sent him the story, he played the video in disbelief.
“I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,'” Fink said. “My heart was beating faster. My mouth was hanging open.”
Sigi Fink, a meteorologist in Vienna, shares his reaction when he saw his photo on CBC News following a romance scam involving his photos and a Go Public reporter.
Fink, 39, is well known in Austria, Germany and parts of Switzerland.
No wallflower, he posts a lot on social media – often shirtless, or working out in the gym – and two years ago he voted the sexiest man in Austria.
Fink said he liked to use his face “forever” – entertaining people with his weather broadcasts – but our story was the opposite, he said.
“It’s quite a terrible thing to see your face in a news story where people are being harmed,” he said, in an interview from Vienna.
Losing control of one’s image is a growing problem in today’s social media climate, says Nafissa Ismail, professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa.
“Most of the time people are completely unaware that their photos are being used for any purpose other than the one they’ve wanted to use it for,” he said.
Having a romance scammer steal and use photos can be quite traumatic for an innocent person, says Ismail.
“You feel that you have been robbed and used in a way that was completely against your values, your morals, your ethical practice.”
Romance scams are a growing problem, as more people spend time online, according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. It says people lost $15.6 million in romance scams in 2013. In 2023, that figure had grown to more than $52 million.
Dozens of fake profiles
Fink, the weatherman, says he first noticed clouds on the horizon about two years ago.
Every now and then, someone would send a phoney Instagram account that used his social media photos.
But recently, “fans send me a fake profile every day,” he said. “The scammers also tag me. ‘Like’ my posts. Even using my real name on their fake accounts. “
Being in the spotlight is one thing, Fink said, but suddenly finding himself in Canadian news worried him.
“I thought, ‘I have to tell people I’m innocent,'” he said. “I’m a good guy. I tell the weather. It feels terrible.”
“The person may also feel some level of responsibility,” says Ismail. “Even though I didn’t commit this scam and I wasn’t involved in it, I was indirectly involved.”.
Fink says sometimes women find out he’s the real face in the photos and end up reaching out to him, which is what AH did recently.
The 42-year-old man lives near Salzburg, Austria, and fell for a scammer using pictures of Fink’s smoke.
CBC News has agreed not to use AH’s full name, because she is concerned about her safety.
His scammer claimed to be an American oil rig engineer working overseas, just like Bobby Brown, but said his name was “Dave Owen.”
“He asked me every day how I was doing, how my day was,” said AH. “It felt like I had found my soul mate.”
Six weeks after contact, “Dave” claimed he had lost his credit card.
Requests for money became a daily occurrence.
Before long, she had sent $10,000.
She says when she finally stopped sending money, the scammer told her to pray for her safety, warning that he knew where she lived and worked.
CBS’s Erica Johnson updates her recent Go Public story about an online romance scam by meeting the man whose face was used to target her. It turned out that he was a well-known personality in Austria.
One night, while scrolling through Facebook, she stumbled across an account with the exact photos her love interest had sent her.
“I saw the name. Sigi Fink. Weather man,” said AH “I had to throw up. I thought I was going to faint. I knew I had fallen for a scammer.”
And not just any scammer. After some digging, Go Public realized it was the one claiming to be “Bobby Brown”.
“I have to laugh,” said AH, despite her devastating experience. “We have the same scammer!”
When I checked the Nigerian scammer’s Instagram account, he seemed to be doing pretty well – recently posting a video that showed him modeling what appeared to be a new gold chain necklace and a new Apple watch.
I told him that we now know the real person in the pictures he has torn; that it causes stress Fink.
“I’m so sorry,” he wrote. “How I wish I could apologize to Fink in person.”
I also told him that we had found AH, one of the women he had cheated on—not only financially, but emotionally.
“Honestly, I’m sorry,” he wrote. “I regret what I have done.”
AH says she doesn’t believe him, and has filed a police report.
Be careful
Fink also went to the police, wanting to clear his name.
Fink says the police officer took his statement, but warned him there was very little authorities could do.
Ismail says there are things people can do to slow down a scammer’s plan. First: Be wary of who can see your details online.
She says people should occasionally do a reverse image search using their photos online, to see where else they turn up – reporting anything illegal to the social media platforms .
“A general eye on the situation … could detect them early enough, before there has been a financial scam,” he said.
Fink says he has, but it takes a lot of time and doesn’t seem to make a difference. He also says he loves engaging on social media, and says he can’t lock his accounts because of his job.
Instead, he says, he’s trying to make peace with the fact that there’s not much he can do — likening romance scammers to the tentacles of an octopus.
“They get everywhere,” Fink said.
Then he pulled out his phone and recorded a video – him in Vienna, me on the phone in Vancouver – a “story” to post on his Instagram account.
Submit your story ideas
Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC television, radio and the web.
We tell your stories, shine a light on wrongdoing and hold the powers that be accountable.
If you have a public interest story, or if you are an insider with information, please contact [email protected] with your name, contact details and a brief summary. All emails are confidential until you decide to Go Public.
Read more stories by Go Public.
Read about our hosts.
Ad blocking test (Why?)
Source link
Related
