Rachel Elwell: Last News

Daily Star's biggest headlines straight to your inbox!A woman was conned out of £133,000 of life savings by an online date who fabricated his own kidnapping story and asked her for the money to pay the ransom.Rachel Elwell was told by the man that he needed money to pay back a Russian loan shark and would remain kidnapped until he could pay it back.Despite warnings from Santander which raised concerns that she was being scammed, she sent both her life savings and money from loans.The events that have left Rachel feeling "suicidal" began on January 1 when Bario introduced himself through an online dating platform.Bario claimed he was a widow having lost his wife to breast cancer and that he lived in Coventry just 25 miles away from her home

dating scam lost almost £113,000 after the man she was talking to claimed he was kidnapped.The man told Rachel Elwell, from the West Midlands, that he lived nearby and had been called abroad for an engineering contract in Ukraine.He convinced her with documents and pictures he needed cash for issues that crept up on him.He claimed he had been taken captive by loan sharks in a wild scheme and needed the funds for his safe return.Rachel, 50, said there is no guarantee she'll see her money again after being duped by the man who "seemed quite an open and genuine guy".She told the BBC she felt responsible whether he lived or died and his clever plot of going silent made her think he had been murdered.The pair met on January 1 online and claimed