Diana Jenkins, a 67-year-old retired teacher from the London area, is still kicking herself after losing more than £128,000 - the bulk of her life savings - to a romance scammer who posed as a retired British Army general. Still using a pseudonym more than two years on, she cannot bring herself to tell her adult son what happened.
Mourning the death of her husband of 42 years, Diana had been lonely and vulnerable. "Why did I do that? I know I was lonely and vulnerable but still…" she said. Her husband died from heart failure three years before she met the 'general' online in October 2022. "It was a massive shock. In the end I suffered a nervous breakdown."
A pen-pal message that seemed genuine
After her son moved in to care for her and she took time off from her adult education job, Diana joined an international pen-pal website. "It wasn't really about finding romance, but friendship. You write a profile and people from all over the world can get in touch," she said. One message stood out from a man who claimed to be a retired general called back into service for covert work in Mali. Checking his name online, Diana found photographs, videos, articles and even pictures of him with Queen Camilla. "I looked him up and everything seemed genuine," she said.
The man said he could not voice or video call because of his covert work, and Diana accepted that. He quickly became the person she turned to every day. "He was just the person I'd been looking for. He was kind and attentive. We were messaging at least once every day, often more. We became very close, even though we'd not actually spoken or seen each other. Then he told me he loved me. And I believed I was in love with him too," she recalled.
The gold transport fees
Three months in, the scammer told Diana he had found a cache of gold in Mali. Legally his, it had to be shipped through Turkey to Britain, but there were taxes to pay. Claiming his finances were tied up in a joint bank account with his estranged wife during a divorce, he asked her for £4,000 and supplied official-looking documents bearing what appeared to be London Port Authority stamps and certificates. "They looked so genuine. There were certificates and stamps and everything," Diana said.
Yet the costs kept growing - storage charges, shipment hold-ups, more fees. "There was always another reason why more money had to be paid. But I believed him," she said. Living in a cycle of hope and anxiety, Diana made 16 bank transfers in all. "In the end almost everything I had put aside for my retirement was gone. This was my children's inheritance…what had I done?" she said.
Even as suspicion crept in, the love bombing continued. "When you've been lonely and you've lost someone you've been with for over 40 years, hearing those things means everything," she explained.
The unmasking
The 'general' eventually sent a boarding pass, saying he was finally coming home, with flight number, departure details and arrival time at Heathrow. But when Diana phoned the airline, no one with his name was listed. She went to Heathrow anyway, and he never appeared. Instead, she was told he had been spirited away by a Ministry of Defence official for a debriefing and then sent to Ukraine.
Demanding he call her, she finally heard his voice. "That's when the penny dropped. Instead of the cultured tone of a British general it was someone speaking in a foreign accent. I was devastated," she said. When she threatened him with the police, he turned the tables, saying the gold shipment was illegal and she would be implicated. "He told me I would go down with him. I was horrified and didn't know what to do."
By then, staff at the Halifax, where Diana banked, had noticed the extraordinary pattern of payments and contacted her. She told them everything, and they persuaded her to go to the police. Her conman, Maxwell Rusey, 53, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, was jailed for five years in September 2024 at Woolwich Crown Court. After Diana contacted the Financial Ombudsman, the Halifax reimbursed every penny of the £128,000.
A happy ending and a stark warning
Diana has since found genuine love with a man she did not meet online. She warns that romance fraudsters deliberately target lonely people. "These romance fraudsters do not target people because they are gullible. They target you because you're lonely. They're very clever. They win your emotions over. And if you're vulnerable, they'll use that against you. The moment they ask for money, that's it. Walk away."
A National Crime Agency spokesperson said: "Diana is incredibly brave to come forward and share her story. We hope it will serve as a warning to thousands of vulnerable potential victims."
NCA and Great! TV join forces
Great! TV has become the first UK broadcaster to give commercial airtime - in peak-time slots across Freeview, Sky and Virgin Media - to the NCA for its Great Romance channel. The campaign features 11 bespoke adverts tying romance fraud advice to storylines from romantic films. Figures from Report Fraud show 12,348 reports of romance fraud between April 2025 and March 2026, with victims losing £116 million, 51% of them aged 50 or over.
Nick Sharp of the NCA said: "Raising awareness as a form of prevention. This campaign with Great Romance is designed to do exactly that." Great Marketing Director Kate Gartland added: "This joint campaign with the NCA will give viewers the awareness they need to spot the tell tale signs and protect themselves and their friends and family from these devastating crimes."
Diana's advice for avoiding romance fraud includes taking things slowly, protecting personal information, not revealing too much about yourself, being wary of anyone who quickly declares their love, and never sending money.
