Belgian man, 76, drives 760km for love — only to meet beauty queen’s real husband and lose $35k in romance scam

A Belgian man has traveled 760km to meet a woman he believed was his future wife — only to realize he had fallen victim to an online romance scam.

Michel, 76, drove all the way to the home of a French model and beauty pageant titleholder, Sophie Vouzelaud, in Saint-Julien, announcing he was her future husband.

He was met with Vouzelaud’s actual husband, Fabien. Michel explained that he had been chatting on WhatsApp with the French model and even paid $35,000 to someone posing online as Vouzelaud.

“My wife, no, it’s the fake accounts,” Fabien replied. “You have to be very careful.”

The couple urged Michel to report the incident to the police, although it’s unclear whether he has done so. Part of the exchange was shared on social media by Fabian. In an accompanying message, he warned users about romance scams.

“I feel so sorry for this man. Watch out for fake accounts, I’m sharing this video to show you it’s real and to be vigilant! Take care of yourself.”

Romance scams have not significantly changed over the past 15 years, according to Ronnie Tokazowski, a principal threat advisor at a phishing protection firm Cofense.

Crooks are utilizing social media and dating apps to shower victims with love and attention until they’re ready to part with their savings. They make their profiles look as legitimate as possible, refining images and text to appeal to other users.

Once they select the victim(s), they go to great lengths to build a strong emotional bond, convincing the person that they’re perfect for each other. Criminals then use emotional manipulation to extort money, gift cards, goods, account credentials, or anything else from their victims.

Although detecting a romance scam with 100% certainty could be complicated, try following these steps for extra security when chatting with a stranger online:

• Ask for a recent photo to verify their identity. Check the forwarded photo using an online tool (such as Google Images) that identifies the image's origin, indicating whether it has already been circulating online.
• Ask for a social media handle that they could share with you.
• Avoid clicking on links sent to you by strangers or people you haven’t been talking to for long. Bots also typically lure you into clicking on malicious links, so watch out for predetermined or “canned” responses.
• Avoid sending intimate images to a person you don’t know or don't feel comfortable sharing them with, as these could later be used for sextortion.