Fake solicitors, lonely hearts, and hotel link to con (From The Bolton News) - The Bolton News

Fake solicitors, lonely hearts, and hotel link to con

12:20pm Saturday 6th August 2011

A FAKE solicitors firm, which claims to have offices in Bolton, is part of an international fraud which also tricks unsuspecting lonely hearts out of thousands of pounds.

Gilstar Solicitors, whose slogan is trust our experience, claims to have a national reputation for work in property law, planning, construction and clinical negligence.

Its website says it was founded in Bristol in 1988, but within a year had further offices in Bolton, Durham and London.

But the firm does not exist, and the website is fake.

It is part of the same scam as another fake website, Poulett Hotels, which was reported in The Bolton News last month.

The Poulett Hotels website offers a luxury 200-a-night hotel and conference suite in Bradford Street, The Haulgh but the real address is a block of bedsits, currently closed for refurbishment.

Police believe the websites are being used as part of an elaborate online fraud to con money from single men in mainland Europe using lonely hearts websites.

The conmen contact men on dating websites, pretending to be an attractive woman from the USA but living in the UK.

After building up a rapport and flirting with the victim, the woman arranges to meet, but at the last minute suffers a setback which needs a large amount of money to resolve.

She then turns to her unsuspecting victim for help.

One man in Austria was conned out of 50,000 in the scam. The victim from Vienna, who has asked not to be identified, said he was contacted on an internet art forum.

The fraudster claimed to be a 29-year-old woman from the US called Allison Hager, who was currently living in the UK.

After a fortnight of exchanging emails, the man was asked for money to pay customs bills to ship artwork to the US. Over the next three months, he was asked for more money.

The man said the fraudsters had taken most of his savings.

He added: I did it really as a humanitarian act and I have been bitten. The man has reported the incident to the police in Austria.

At least two men in Belgium have also been targeted through Lonely Heart sites, and police believe there may be more victims.



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