'I nearly got catfished - then found love with the real man in the pictures'

dailystar.co.uk:

Online dating scams often end in tragedy with unfortunate victims sending thousands to dodgy con artists. But in Nicole Hayden’s instance, it resulted in her finding love.While dating apps like Tinder have expanded the pool of potential matches for singletons, it has also exposed vulnerable people to the possibility of being catfished.

The practice sees people lured into speaking to and even sending money to strangers with attractive profiles, who are actually completely different to their online pictures.But, after Netflix’s Tinder Swindler has clued audiences up on it, Nicole wasn’t fooled when a man she met online asked her to send him money.Trying to find love online, the 38-year-old mum of two thought she was chatting to a handsome man called Marcus.

But, sharing her story on NBC 6 South Florida, Nicole described how events quickly unfolded.“It started getting really hot and heavy, I think he told me he even loved me after a day, he was like, ‘I love you, I’m going to marry you, you're the woman of my dreams’,” she explained.But things soon became difficult when the mystery man began to ask Nicole to send him money.“He did say, ‘oh my mum’s in the hospital, I need $6000 (roughly £4500)’,” she continued, remembering that she hadn’t fallen for the scam.“And at that point, that’s when they got really belligerent, and said, ‘we can access your phone, we can get all of your pictures’,” she added.These threats included the possibility of sharing photoshopped nude snaps of Nicole over the internet, but the woman still refused to comply with demands.“I thought, I live in a gated community, nobody’s going to come in, my kids go to charter school, it’s monitored,” she explained.While this is where the story comes to an end in.