I thought I’d met the love of my life on a dating app – then she conned me out of £7,800 by faking cancer
Read on to find out Rebecca's web of lies
WHEN Sean Fry first met Rebecca Gray on a dating app – he felt the sparks fly instantly.
But the now 38-year-old revealed the sick facade she put on to swindle him out of almost £10,000.
Sean was at first besotted with the mum-of-one, but after their sixth date she dropped a huge bombshell that she had liver cancer, and was expected to live for just six more months.
In reality, Rebecca had no diagnosis of cancer and was instead trying to squeeze as much money as she could out of Sean.
Now he has revealed to Channel 4 how he missed the warning signs in their new series, Love Cheats.
After chatting on Tinder, Rebecca, who went by the name Arrow, revealed she was living in a van with her six-month-old and the pair instantly hit it off.
They decided to meet by the ocean, with her baby Sarah in tow and Sean : “She was confident, charismatic. She was a writer. I hadn’t met anyone like her before.”
Sean’s mum recalls how he was so excited to meet someone on his wavelength, claiming he was ready to settle down and start a family.
As the pair got closer, Rebecca revealed that her ex-partner and Sarah’s dad, who lived in the UK, was abusive, hence changing her name to Arrow so he couldn’t find her – but it was yet another lie.
It wasn’t long after that Rebecca revealed she had cancer and was expected to live just six more months.
Sean said: “The way I saw Arrow was that she was just a fighter. And she would carry on.
“She would say how grateful she was to have me in her life., And we can’t believe that we found you.
“I did really care for her and Sarah as well. And just wanted to do what I could to make their lives a little bit better.”
Once they moved in together, Sean noticed that her bouts of illness were up and down – some days she was fine while others would see her curled on the floor in pain and throwing up.
He added that financially, she always had something in the pipeline but failed to ever get a job – leaving him paying for her and her daughter.
Despite being the protective partner most women dream of, Rebecca hadn’t quite had her fill.
How to protect yourself from scams
BY keeping these tips in mind, you can avoid getting caught up in a scam:
- Firstly, remember that if something seems too good to be true, it normally is.
- Check brands are “verified” on Facebook and Twitter pages – this means the company will have a blue tick on its profile.
- Look for grammatical and spelling errors; fraudsters are notoriously bad at writing proper English. If you receive a message from a “friend” informing you of a freebie, consider whether it’s written in your friend’s normal style.
- If you’re invited to click on a URL, hover over the link to see the address it will take you to – does it look genuine?
- To be on the really safe side, don’t click on unsolicited links in messages, even if they appear to come from a trusted contact.
- Be careful when opening email attachments too. Fraudsters are increasingly attaching files, usually PDFs or spreadsheets, which contain dangerous malware.
- If you receive a suspicious message then report it to the company, block the sender and delete it.
- If you think you’ve fallen for a scam, report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or use its .
She was still on Tinder and had begun a relationship with another man, Steve, who remained anonymous.
Like Sean, she told him how she had terminal cancer
Rebecca did everything she could to make her illness seem legit – pulling out strands of hair so it looked like she was going through chemotherapy.
Sean had seen some of the messages between Rebecca and this man, but she brushed it off saying he was just a male friend.
In the meantime, she let Sean know she was pregnant with his child, leaving Sean over the moon.
Just a few months later Rebecca claimed to have had a miscarriage while camping with her daughter, leaving Sean devastated.
The reality was that Rebecca was never pregnant in the first place and was in fact with her other boyfriend while she was away.
Rebecca was also claiming to go to court with Sarah’s dad – with Sean footing the bill for lawyer fees.
The financial support he gave the mum increased, leading him to take on a second job as an Uber driver in the evenings.
Then she asked Sean to come and help decorate her Steve’s house while he was in Scotland.
Of course, she didn’t tell Steve it was Sean helping and paying for the decorations – so he paid Rebecca over £3,000 which she stashed away for herself.
It became very clear that everything was a lie.
Sean Fry
Once the renovations were complete, Sean left the house, but panicked the next day when he hadn’t heard from Rebecca.
He decided to make his way back round, when he bumped into Steve, making his way upstairs Sean caught Rebecca in his bed.
Sean left and ended the relationship there, but Steve did a little more detective work by going through her phone, realising she had lied about everything.
“We chatted for hours and we just became a couple of detectives trying to piece this story together,” Sean said.
“Once we started talking, there was no doubt about what was going on. Steve had a photo in the van on the trip across the Nullarbor. I had almost the exact same photo in the van with her and Sarah on the way over to Adelaide.”
“It became very clear that everything was a lie.”
The pair soon realised they were both paying for Rebecca’s living expenses and they weren’t the only ones fooled by her lies.
Her ex-partner was not abusive he had supported her through her cancer diagnosis too.
It was only when he began questioning doctors meetings that Rebecca decided to run away and move to Australia.
Despite the case going to court, with both men providing evidence to detectives, Rebecca was spared jail and given a suspended sentence.
While Rebecca may not have faced justice, her daughter Sarah was finally given back to her dad.
Sean said: “The sentence that she got doesn’t even reflect what she, you know, did financially. And financially was the absolute least of it.”