I was left penniless by romance scammer after simple pic trick – vile Facebook groups let thousands of ghouls share tips

, with The Sun discovering as many as one hundred live at the same time.

The most popular, which was started in April, had 68,000 members and after we contacted Meta - the new name for the company behind the social media platform - has been removed.

Others are being investigated as a result of The Sun's investigation.  

Terrifying groups reveals tricks of the trade

Inside these groups, scammers sell victims’ contact details, boast about the thousands of pounds they have taken, and offer to teach others the brutal tricks of the trade - sometimes at a cost and other times for free.

“Please I need a serious boss who would make me cash out before Christmas anyone,” one user from the Facebook group wrote.

'Cashing out' or 'pulling out' are common phrases used by fraudsters to describe conning someone out of their hard-earned cash.

Others boasted about their success rates including one who stated: “It’s Christmas and you still never collect… Join if you want to cash out this December.”

Those with photo editing skills tried to sell fake driving licences and images of their alter-ego holding up the name of a victim - a hack often used by romance scammers to ‘prove’ they are real.

He spun such a big web of yarn that I could have opened a haberdashery with the amount of s*** he spoke

Claire Spencer

Manipulation is key with these criminals, who exploit people’s emotions by posing as love interests on dating sites before asking for increasing amounts of money.

Typically scenarios like a family emergency, a disaster abroad, medical bills or debts are the claims used to make their victim transfer money via banks, cryptocurrency and gift cards.

The scammers often work together in groups and consult one another about the best ploys to win over trust and demand money.

One member even promised a 40 per cent cut of his earnings if another could help him “pull out” - a phase for conning money from someone - before December 25.

A second quizzed the evil hivemind about ways to get a victim to send a monetary Christmas gift rather than a greetings card that he said “I don’t need”.

The amount criminals on these groups earn is hard to quantify but some claim to rake in as much as “10k - 15k” per day.

Claire considers herself lucky, in some ways, because she was only stripped of £500 – others have lost tens if not hundreds of thousands and sometimes their homes.

'He used details of my life against me'

Claire was spun “lie after lie” by Jack, who at one point even produced a convincing fake passport.

She met him on the dating site Plenty Of Fish - He claimed to be local and things appeared to be “going really well” during their early online romance.

When Jack asked for money, Claire encouraged him to get help from the embassy and a number of other options.

But she says there was “always an excuse or reason why it wouldn’t work”.

“At times, he turned nasty and other times he laid it on very thick. He said he was starving and I can’t bear to think of anyone going hungry or suffering,” she recalled.

“He spun such a big web of yarn that I could have opened a haberdashery with the amount of s*** he spoke.”

After realising she had been scammed, Claire called out the con-man, who responded with angry messages and later asked for her bank details to “pay her back”.

She suspected this was another attempt to steal more money from her and after four weeks of trying to get her money back, she blocked him.

As Claire reflected on their three-month online relationship, she realised Jack had used information she had told him to construct his fake life.

“He claimed to be from nearby and I asked so many questions, things to prove that he was from Winsford but he was very cunning,” she recalled. 

“I asked him, ‘What’s your favourite pub?’ and he disappeared offline - which should have been a red flag - he came back and said it was the Red Lion.

“Previously, I had sent him a photo of me and friends sticking our tongues out, which was taken by a Red Lion photographer. I gave him that information unintentionally.

“I was very sceptical about online dating and during the six years I’d been single, I had been approached by scammers before but had never fallen for them.”

'Search for a white name' & steal their photos

Lowlife conmen use social media to legitimise their fabricated lives they claim to lead and often do so by stealing photos from real people.

One user explained it was easy and wrote: “To get a picture go to Instagram and search for any white name male or female.”

In a series of grim posts, one scammer tried to sell the phone number of a man who he claimed “will pay $100 (£76) in a week” along with his photograph.

Another shared a snap of a woman and wrote: “Please someone should help me, I have a white woman to scam but I don’t know how to tell her to send me money.”

These terrifying groups are easy to join by typing in specific keywords known to romance scammers - which The Sun has chosen not to reveal.

Facebook have warnings in place whenever those words are searched for, which tell users the terms are “sometimes associated with fraudulent activity”.

They encouraged users to report illegal activity - but did not respond to The Sun’s request for information about the number of groups they have removed.

Despite this, Facebook claims to have better protections in place than other social media platforms.

A Meta spokesperson told The Sun: “We removed the Group brought to our attention and we have warnings in place when people use these search terms. 

“Fraudulent activity is not allowed on our platform and we’ve dedicated significant resources to tackle this industry-wide issue. 

“We continue to invest in new technologies and methods to protect people, and have donated £3million to Citizens Advice to deliver a UK Scam Action Programme which raises awareness of online scams and helps victims.”