THE victim of a Tinder con artist who tried to scam her out of more than £3000 with the promise of a dream holiday to Greece has spoken out in a bid to warn other women.

The 34-year-old went through months of hell after being duped after just two dates.

She has finally been reunited with her money but only after pressure from the Evening Times.

Laura, whose name has been changed, met charming Christopher Harkins on dating app Tinder and the pair hit it off.

After just two dates they arranged to travel to Greek island Mykonos on a no expense spared trip.

She said: “We had gone out on a couple of occasions and things moved fairly quickly but, you know, we were both single and both adults.

“We had a conversation about how hard it is to find people to go on holiday with and the conversation developed to us planning to go on holiday together.

“It was very quick but he seemed really fun and spontaneous and what girl doesn’t like that?”

But after the trusting office worker transferred £3247 to Harkins’s bank account things turned sour.

Harkins said he withheld the money after Laura issued threats to his life – a claim rubbished by the victim.

In a second attempt to squeeze more money from his victim, Harkins claimed his accounts had been frozen by his bank, and he was in desperate need of £12,000 for a “business outgoing”.

In WhatsApp messages seen by the Evening Times, Harkins asks the victim to take out a loan for £12,000.

When she said her credit rating was not high enough to secure a loan he repeatedly pushed her, asking her to try for a credit card instead, as well as sending links to price comparison websites and bank websites.

After the victim finally said she couldn’t secure the money, days went by without contact.

Laura called the Greek hotel Harkins said he had booked but there was no record of the booking. She became nervous and reported her worries to the police.

Police Scotland confirmed a report of fraud is being investigated.

When she messaged Harkins to express her concerns that the holiday might not go ahead, he sent a string of angry replies, blaming his reaction on Laura for telling friends about the holiday plans.

Harkins later made repeated promises to pay back cash –

failing to deliver on multiple occasions.

After promising to meet Laura in Glasgow city centre on September 25 with the money, Harkins failed to show up.

After another silence, Harkins texted to say he lost his phone during a bar fight in Royal Exchange Square bar The Social and even claimed he couldn’t remember her name.

In other messages Harkins said he would give her the money but told her she must “cancel the police” first.

At another point in the exchange, he asked if he can have a friend transfer “15 to 20 grand” to Laura’s bank account for her to lift out and give to him, deducting her £3000.

In another bizarre claim, Harkins said he had invested the £3000 to make £32,000, sending her a picture of a large bag of money.

But then he claimed ‘an issue with his bank’ meant he couldn’t deposit the cash or make a funds transfer back to the victim.

In frustration, and having heard of possible further victims, Laura contacted the Evening Times.

We visited an address at which Harkins has two companies registered and spoke to a woman believed to be his mother.

Following this visit, Harkins contacted Laura to say he would meet her to give her the money, on the condition she asked us not to publish the story.

Police Scotland advised Laura not to meet Harkins, so he said he would transfer the cash to her electronically before again saying his bank had blocked his account. He then asked Laura to go to a chip shop in Cathcart where cash ‘would be waiting for her’, saying he would not be there.

Finally, she was reunited with her money – nearly three months after first handing it over.

Laura said: “I am mortified. I have really questioned myself about how I didn’t realise sooner.

“It’s now difficult to tell if he’s been honest about anything.

“It is so embarrassing but I will take the embarrassment to try to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“He’s relied on the fact I would be embarrassed and not say anything to anyone. He is relying on my silence.

“My friends have said to me, ‘You’ve got too big a heart’. But I don’t want this to change me.”

Police say that ‘romance fraud’ goes unreported in four out of five instances due to victims feeling embarrassed or that it may have been their fault.

In a Police Scotland campaign about this issue this year, latest figures showed that from April to December 2018, reported fraud incidents, including romance scams, increased by 21 per cent from 6106 the previous year to 7398.

Officers urge people to never send money or bank details to someone they have met online.

After three lengthy conversations with the Evening Times, Harkins insisted he held Laura’s cash back because he was ‘in fear for his life’ following ‘death threats’ from her.

He told us he had screenshots of the threats from Laura but preferred not to share them with us. Harkins did not answer questions on why he had taken the money from Laura, and denied having done the same thing to any other woman. He also strongly denied having asked her to take a loan out for £12,000, despite the Evening Times having seen screenshots of the conversation.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Police Scotland is investigating a report of a fraud offence that was received by officers in the Glasgow area.

“The incident was reported to have taken place in August 2019 and inquiries remain ongoing.”

HAVE YOU BEEN VICTIM OF A SIMILAR SCAM?

Contact reporter Catriona Stewart on 0141 302 6526 or catriona.stewart@heraldandtimes.co.uk