A This Morning viewer has revealed how she was "duped" out of £1,000 - and is now struggling to trust again.
After speaking about Netflix show The Tinder Swindler, This Morning held a phone-in section on Wednesday asking viewers if they have "been duped", presenter Holly Willoughby asked "are you struggling after falling victim to a similar scam?" with Deirdre on hand to take viewers' calls.
Speaking to the first caller, Jane, Holly told her: "You are somebody who has been conned and is finding it difficult to trust anybody after."
Jane replied: "Yeah, my wall has gone completely up."
Phil explained: "So he started off by asking for Google Play gift cards and then he got really threatening, swindled you out of £1,000.
"You said you saw the red flags - but this is the heartbreaking [thing ] - you'd just come out of a long-term marriage and you've just met someone who lives abroad and you're sceptical. So it all piles into one doesn't it, Deidre?"
"Yeah, absolutely," Deidre sympathised. "I think there's a real common theme with [the] calls today. People tend to get involved in these relationships when they are vulnerable. Like Jane, you've just come out of a long-term marriage but, other people, things have just broken down in their life. So they are very vulnerable.
"It's all so easy then to get drawn in by someone who seems warm and caring."
She asked Jane: "So how long have you been chatting to this person who is abroad Jane? You haven't actually met for real yet?"
"No but we have FaceTimed and video chatted now and we talk more than what I did with the person that I trusted," she explained.
"I think the big thing is with these things is go really really steady," Deidre advised her. "And I know it's hard but try not to pin too many hopes on it until you have actually met face-to-face.
"No matter how wonderful online dating can be - and it can be great as well as the real downside of it - until you've actually met someone and you've had the same vibes together, you can't really tell whether this is doing to work out or not.
"And then there are definitely some basic rules, which you've learnt the hard way. But for everyone - if someone you meet online asks for money in any form at all, don't do it.
"Don't give them money. It is such a big red flag."
Deidre also offered further advice to those watching: "While I have been working out how to help people today, there are a couple of really good websites - the Online Dating Association and there's also one called Get Safe Online.
"And both of them have got really good guides to online dating and a big red flag for them as well... If anybody asks for money, don't do it. And moreover, report them to the site you've met them through. It's really such a big no-no.
"I think if you follow those guides and you take things really steadily that can really help you feel safer."
She also urged viewers to make sure they "feel confident in themselves".
"And another big message - and this is true for you as well Jane - is build up the rest of your life," she said. "People are vulnerable, particularly when they are heaping everything on the idea of finding a partner. Having a partner is great - or can be great - but the really important thing is that you feel confident in yourself, you've got a life, you've got friends, you've got social contact and that is going to make things easier for us these days.
"If you're seeing someone you've met online in the context of a pretty vivid life of your own, you are much more likely to be making good decisions for yourself."
But Holly had her own advice as she told her not to let the experience make her lose her faith in love.
"Jane, I'm sorry. There not all bad out there so please don't lose your faith in love. Don't let him do that to you. That would be awful."
But on Twitter, not all viewers were as sympathetic when it came to being "duped".
One asked: "Why would you give all your money away to a stranger? WHY?"
While a second said: "I don't understand how someone can meet someone online. Not even in person and send them money. Like its a normal thing."
But one sympathised: "This Morning are doing a phone-in on people who have been Tinder swindled and these people are heartbroken," she said. "It's not a 'victimless' fraud, it's so cowardly to target vulnerable, lonely people."
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