Dad in drag sets up fake account to lure online scammer

A dad-of-two dressed up in drag so he could catch out an online scammer who had conned thousands out of his friend’s mother.

David Walker, 39, decided to turn the tables on the fraudster, who faked an online romance so that he could con the woman out of the money.

Mr Walker slapped on make-up and created a fake Facebook profile, giving himself the name ‘Julian Le Flange’ in an attempt to lure predators.

It didn’t take long for a ‘religious pastor’ from Nigeria to declare his love for Julian – before asking for £689 for a flight.

Mr Walker, from Newcastle, managed to lure the scammer into an exchange that ended with him posting a photo of some toys labelled the ‘Western Union Shop’.

The conversation was then posted online and let to the fraudster being bombarded with so many prank messages of his own that he begged Julian to leave him alone.

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Mr Walker, who says he has exposed dozens of conmen using similar tactics, said: “I have a good friend whose mother unfortunately fell victim to one of these scammers and she lost thousands of pounds.

“She was very embarrassed and it had a very negative effect on her.

“Once I shared the pictures on Facebook of how I had strung this man along he started getting loads of messages giving him abuse.

“He started demanding I tell everyone to stop messaging him. It’s nice to see him get a taste of his own medicine.

“He was eventually forced to delete his account.”

The conmen’s profiles were reported to Facebook but Mr Walker said that the site could very rarely do anything as no crime had yet been committed.

Top pic: Caters