A gay man from Brighton, England, had his photos stolen to trick women into parting with money on various dating sites.
Ex-BBC producer and now public speaker Steve Bustin is a happily married gay man.
But Bustin discovered his photos had been stolen and used on a multitude of dating site.
His photos has been used since July 2016, including on EliteSingles and Zoosk, when a woman contacted him.
Brigit Hebibi, from Berlin, Germany, contacted Bustin, 46, who had been profiled on EliteSingles as ‘Martin’
A man using his photos and calling himself Sebastian had started talking to another on Facebook, claiming to be a Brit working in Thailand.
The feature from today's Sunday Times about how my photos became the face of an online scam – now a new keynote for me: https://t.co/L6MjNyQc9n pic.twitter.com/u6QDEFzbeS
— Steve Bustin (@steveinbrighton) March 4, 2018
Con man asked lonely women on dating sites for money
However Hebibi broke contact when the man in the profile started asking her for money.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, Bustin said he wanted to ‘devalue’ the photos and prevent more fraudulent activity.
‘Someone has been harvesting images of me from all over the web.’
The latest victim is a 60-year-old widow from the West Country.
She began talking to ‘Martin’ on Zoosk in January of this year.
The anonymous victim told the Sunday Times: ‘I thought I’d found my Prince Charming. I was really taken in.
‘He used to seem so kind. He’d send me music and say: “Do you like the song? Do you like dancing?” ‘I feel like a total idiot.’
‘Martin’ also used an old video of Bustin and superimposed Bustin’s voice on to it during a Skype call, but the woman quickly cottoned on.
GSN has contacted EliteSingles for further comment.