By Kevin Akor
BUCHAREST, Romania — A Romanian businesswoman who believed she was helping Dubai’s crown prince invest £200 million in a humanitarian foundation was instead ensnared in a sophisticated romance scam that cost her $2.5 million, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.
By the time she realized she had been deceived, the money was gone — transferred to a Nigerian man investigators say spent years perfecting a royal impersonation, complete with fabricated advisers, forged documents and elaborate backstories.
The woman told investigators she was first contacted through LinkedIn by a man claiming close ties to the Emirati royal family. Their correspondence gradually turned personal, then romantic, before shifting to what she believed was a confidential investment opportunity linked to charitable projects in the Middle East.
“He spoke with absolute confidence, like someone used to power,” she said, according to OCCRP. “Everything looked authentic — the language, the documents, the people around him.”
As doubts emerged, the scammer introduced additional characters posing as advisers and associates. One of them later warned her that the supposed royal lover was manipulating her using African “juju and voodoo,” a tactic investigators say was designed to sow confusion and keep her emotionally invested.
OCCRP reporters traced the fraud using a handful of digital clues, following the trail from the initial LinkedIn messages through financial transfers and online aliases. The investigation ultimately led to a newly built mansion in Abuja, Nigeria, which reporters linked to the alleged scammer.
Investigators described the suspect as a “career romance fraudster” who reinvested proceeds from scams into real estate and luxury living, while continuing to target victims abroad.
Romance scams remain one of the fastest-growing forms of online fraud globally, costing victims billions of dollars each year. OCCRP said the case highlights how social media platforms and professional networking sites are increasingly used as entry points for high-value deception.
“What makes these schemes effective is not technology alone,” the organization said in its report, “but patience, psychological manipulation and carefully constructed lies that unfold over months or even years.”
