Black Money Scam You've Been Scammed

Millions of us are targeted in scams every year,

and whether it comes in the form of an e-mail,

a cold call or a knock at the door, they are all designed to do

one thing and one thing only - to get you to part with your cash.

Coming up, the family who had a con man living in their home.

-He could've ended up...

-Doing anything.

Plus, the heartless Romeo who used love and friendship

to get his hands on women's cash.

I've not allowed new people into my life since then.

Well, I'm here to tell you what the con man doesn't want you to know -

how to stay one step ahead of the game and not get scammed.

Some con men will rip you off in the blink of an eye,

but for relatively small amounts.

Then there are others who will expend incredible time and effort

trying to get that big payout.

We're talking about high-end scams here,

where the prize for the con man could be a six or seven figure sum.

But to get their hands on that kind of cash,

they need to find the right person to target and they need to devise

an elaborate scam that could take months or even years to pull off.

When you look at the funds involved, it is worth the time and effort

for the end product that they are going to get,

which can result in hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The couple I'm about to meet lost a staggering sum of money to this con,

but the shocking thing is that it could've ripped their family apart.

Richard and Anjani Hunt live in Hampshire with their three grown-up children.

Richard runs a multi-million-pound machinery business

which he built up from nothing.

His hard work means he's been able to afford a lovely home

and a comfortable lifestyle for his family.

-Hello.

-Hello!

-You must be Anj?

-You must be Matt.

-Nice to meet you.

-Lovely to meet you, too.

-Shall I come in?

-Please come in.

-Thank you.

But Richard's success has come at a price.

Last year, he and his family were targeted in a highly elaborate scam,

and the con men were trying to steal everything Richard has worked for.

-Is Richard a very hard worker?

-He is.

How many hours a day would you say Richard works?

Well, 24 hours, basically.

If there were more, he would be doing more.

MATT LAUGHS Well, I work.

I don't do golf, I don't do... I don't do many...

I don't do any hobbies at all.

I must say, yeah, it's sad, I do enjoy work, yeah.

Richard has put his heart and soul into running his business

and providing for his wife and kids.

So, when he was presented with the deal of a lifetime in 2011,

you can hardly blame him for being interested.

He'd was approached by an African businessman,

who wanted him to supply machinery for a building project

on the Ivory Coast.

It was a contract that would earn Richard around one million pounds.

This came across as a genuine businessman who knew what he was

talking about, and he came across as very honest and down-to-earth.

He said there was a great need for low-cost housing on the Ivory Coast

and he wanted the machines to prepare all the sites.

The businessman was called Frank Beddy, and he told Richard

he was running the project on behalf of the Ivory Coast government.

And he said, "When are you available?

"I would like to bring you over to meet the prime minister

"and the ministers of housing in the Ivory Coast."

And I thought, "Great."

What Richard didn't know was that Frank Beddy

was a high-class con man.

It's certainly common for con men to pretend that they have contacts

at a high-level or in governments.

Impressed with what he had heard, Richard asked his advisers

to check the paperwork and make sure everything was above board.

There were other people on my side that looked at the project and said,

"Richard, this is fantastic, where did you meet this guy?"

You know, "It's great."

Beddy did tell Richard there would be some upfront costs.

He wanted to carry on with the business straightaway,

and he asked me for £8,300 to cover his expenses.

Although it was a large sum of money,

Richard was happy to cover Beddy's expenses.

After all, his paperwork had checked out

and there was no reason to be suspicious.

But things were about to take their first dramatic twist.

Richard got a call to say Beddy had been badly burned in an accident.

When I went to see him, he was lying on a hospital bed

and he had two pillows at the bottom of his bed and his feet were up.

His arms were up like this,

he was in quite a lot of pain at that time.

He just kept apologising and saying,

"Look, don't worry, everything is going to be all right.

"You know, the doctors have said that within the next five days

"they are going to take the bandages off

"and everything will be all right with the project,"

and he just kept apologising, really.

-Your first reaction is one of sympathy?

-Yes.

Basically, I just felt so sorry for him.

It's very common in these type of scams for the con man to put out some sort of cry for help,

and the story often given is the con man himself has suffered burns.

Whether by accident or design, Beddy had engineered

the perfect opportunity to get close to Richard.

I basically said to him, "Well, look, when you get out,

"Would you like to come and stay at my house?"

It was an invitation Richard would live to regret.

His family was about to be drawn into the scam.

I looked after him like a mother would look after her son, really.

I did his washing, did his cooking,

I went out and got all his food that he liked.

And I quite enjoyed his company.

Because every day, I'm here by myself, so it was quite nice

having somebody to chat to in the kitchen and, you know,

telling me about his wives and he was a prince, and all these stories.

He'd make me laugh, because I couldn't believe them.

So, yeah, he was great company for me. Yeah. He was.

It is rare that a con man will get the opportunity

to get into a victim's family, but where that opportunity arises,

they will grasp that with both hands.

Beddy could now gain the trust of the whole family

and cement his relationship with Richard.

He made a very close friendship with my two sons and my daughter,

and we sat down every night for dinner, didn't we?

He had actually become a very close friend

in such a short period of time.

I thought he was a wonderful man.

Beddy lived with the family for a couple of months

and got closer and closer to them.

And with the business deal still progressing,

Richard continued to pay Beddy's expenses.

Have you discussed with each other any suspicions

-or any feelings that you might have about it?

-No.

We trusted him 100%.

But Frank Beddy now had the family right where he wanted them,

and he was ready to go for the big prize.

He told Richard the deal was done

but that money was needed upfront to pay landowners.

Because of all the corruption in Africa,

he couldn't do a money transfer and he would need the money in cash.

Beddy was now talking six-figure sums,

and he told Richard the deal could fall through

if they didn't get the cash fast.

Richard had some but not all of the cash,

so, dragging his family further into the scam,

he borrowed £70,000 from wife Anjani and £25,000 from his sons.

It took me, I think, it was a week-and-a-half to get the money,

and then I gave him that money.

How much money?

About £380,000 at that time.

But getting hold of the cash was only the beginning.

In another remarkable twist,

Beddy told Richard the cash would have to be dyed black

to get it safely into Africa.

Richard didn't know it at the time,

but this is an age-old con called the black money scam.

He had to be very, very careful that the money didn't get stolen,

and he wanted to make sure that he had hold of the money at all times

and deliver it directly to the landowner.

Richard's trust in Beddy was being pushed to the very limit.

I said, "Look, Frank, you know, when I first met you, I was happy,

"I wasn't concerned about anything, but at the last minute,

"you're telling me that this money has got to be dyed black to get it

"out the country and I'm not comfortable with that."

But Beddy assured Richard that this was the only safe way to transport

his precious £380,000.

He just kept reassuring me and saying,

"Don't worry, Richard, everything is all right."

He basically kept on all the time, "Please trust me."

-Did you know anything about this, Anj?

-No. Nothing.

Richard was in too deep.

Although he felt uneasy, he allowed Beddy to show him

how the dying process would work.

He had a special chemical that turned one of the notes black

and then he actually pulled it out and he put it into some other liquid

and put a little mini drop of chemical in it

and it went from black back into real money again.

And I was astonished.

Convinced by the process,

Richard nervously agreed for the full £380,000 to be dyed.

How did you feel watching £380,000 of your money being dipped?

Sick.

-Why didn't you stop him?

-Well, because it was...

We were too far into it.

Once the money had been dyed, Beddy began putting it through a machine

which he said would coat the cash in a special preservative.

He plugged the box in and there was a noise for about 30 seconds,

and I said, "What's that all that about, Frank?"

And he said, "Oh, it's just

"processing the powder equally at the ends to preserve the money."

When the process was complete, the money was wrapped up,

put into a suitcase, and given to Richard.

Beddy then took his machine away

and said he was off to buy chemicals to reverse the process.

I went into his room, I unzipped the suitcase, I opened it up

and all the money that I saw him wrap up was still in the suitcase.

But the wheels were about to come off.

Beddy phoned Richard and told him he needed £200,000 to buy chemicals.

When he told me that, I nearly had a heart attack.

Realising something was seriously wrong,

Richard went online and found pages that talked of the black money scam.

He got straight on the phone to the police

who came and examined the cash.

No serial number, no foil in the middle.

It feels like paper.

The police confirmed Richard's worst fears.

Beddy had disappeared,

leaving him with a suitcase full of photocopied notes.

By that time, I was physically sick.

The police carefully sifted through the notes,

and as Richard explained what had happened,

it became clear how the scam had worked.

The real money went into the top of the box,

and then when he plugged it into the socket,

he switched it on and it must have been a rotating table in the box

that turned round, and my real money had gone to the bottom of this box

and photocopied money had come to the top.

Richard now had to face his family with the news that Frank Beddy

was a con artist and had taken £400,000 of their money.

What was your reaction?

I don't think I even said anything, I was so shocked.

I couldn't believe what had been going on.

I was really shocked.

I didn't know anything.

And, you know, I'm angry because we've lost all this money

when we could have put it to a better cause.

We could've done, you know, so much more as a family.

I think it's more than that.

Betrayed.

It's just a disaster.

A complete disaster.

Although his family's money was gone,

Richard had an opportunity to get some justice.

Frank Beddy was still in touch and wanted Richard to meet

two of his colleagues to hand over yet more cash.

Sensing an opportunity to catch the con men,

Richard agreed to take part in a police sting, captured on CCTV.

Once the suspects had entered the room, we entered the room

immediately behind them and the pair were both arrested for conspiracy

to defraud and possession of an article for use in fraud.

These two men were Christian Tsanga and Ivan Tchouta,

and both were later found guilty and sentenced to four years.

Sadly, the architect of the crime, Frank Beddy, is still at large.

Looking at it now, I can't believe that I allowed it to happen.

I really can't.

It's just unbelievable, really, how I got sucked into it.

I can only imagine that you feel very guilty.

I feel that I've let my family down, I feel that I was stupid.

-He could've ended up...

-Doing anything.

I do, I feel terrible for you,

because I think that's the way you do business, is by taking risks.

Yeah.

What happened to Richard and Anjani is highly unusual,

but there are lessons here for all of us.

So if someone approaches you with a money-making scheme,

ask yourself...

If it sounds far-fetched or hard to believe, just walk away.

Yes, the web is a mine of information about scams,

so a quick surf online could save you a lot of heartache.

And last but not least, if you're suspicious...

..talk to people that you've done business with before.

The message from this is he's still out there.

He's still got his box of tricks, and the black money scam

is not myth and legend, it's a real thing.

It's happened to you guys and it could happen to somebody else.

Everyone in life needs a soul mate.

That one person that understands and shares your passions,

your desires and your interests.

But what happens when that one person turns out not to be

in love with you, but in love with your money?

In 2008, Devon & Cornwall Police found themselves on the trail

of a serial con man who had been breaking hearts and bank balances

across the land for over a decade.

He was the best liar and the best con man

that I have ever come across in my career.

The case centred around compulsive liar turned love rat John Keady,

who used online dating sites and internet forums to target women.

Over the years, he has left behind a trail of destruction.

You can't begin to describe the amount of pain he has caused people.

Police had been alerted to Keady having been contacted

by a series of women who had lost money to his scheming ways.

Women like professional opera singer Laura Hudson, who met Keady online

and within days had fallen under his spell.

He was very relaxing, he was jokey, he was an ordinary person.

Nothing untoward in any way, shape or form.

John Keady claimed to be a successful businessman,

and, like Laura, often travelled around the country for his work.

They seemed to hit it off.

The reality is we are attracted to people who are similar to ourselves,

and so, if the con person can to make themselves seem similar to us,

having the same interests, then we're going to like them more

and they'll be more successful at conning money out of us as well.

After exchanging a few messages online,

Keady was quick to move things up a gear.

He gave me his phone number and said, "Please call me."

We spoke on the phone, we sent text messages.

'He never tried to be anything other than just a very light-hearted, friendly person.'

John Keady was keen to meet Laura as soon as possible,

to develop their relationship and get the scam moving.

It was always, "You're a very interesting person,

"I'd like get to meet you in person,"

and he was always very much, "You sound like a genuine person. I think I can trust you."

Within weeks of them first making contact,

Laura felt comfortable enough to invite Keady to her home for dinner.

He was chatting about books he had read, music.

This is a very intelligent person,

because the books were all about psychology and things like that,

and I thought, "Ooh, that's somebody who really is interested in

"something more than just football and going down the pub."

So, I was very impressed, actually.

Keady also seemed impressed and texted her to suggest another date.

But the day before they were to meet,

Keady used his charms to get things onto his favourite subject - money.

I got a text message saying that some companies owed him money,

and because they owed him money, he couldn't pay his bills and therefore

he was going to lose his company business and go under himself.

Wanting to help her new friend,

Laura agreed to loan Keady a total of £10,000.

But almost as soon as she'd handed over the cash,

she began to feel concerned.

She searched the internet for information about Keady's company

and couldn't find a thing.

I contacted him to say, you know,

"Where's the website, is everything OK?"

And he said, "Oh, no, everything is fine,

"you must have misspelt the company."

So I went back on internet searches,

and I found a website referring to John Keady.

They said that John Keady was no longer welcome on this forum,

if you've had any dealings with him, please contact the website.

The minute I saw the message, my heart sank

and I just felt physically ill,

because I just knew straightaway that I'd been scammed.

Laura got straight on the phone to Devon and Cornwall Police,

and received the shocking news that Keady was on bail,

having been charged with several counts of fraud.

The charges were the result of an 18-month investigation

by DC Rachel Short and her team.

First of all, there was a lady that came forward who had been

in a relationship with him, just as friends,

and when their friendship had broken down,

she found out that she had been left with a huge credit card bill.

As DC Short began investigating, she discovered that Keady had targeted

scores of women over a decade.

He had some past history and had been in the media and press before,

on national TV and in newspapers,

relating to defrauding women out of thousands of pounds.

So how had he been able to get away with it for so long?

He was being arrested and bailed out,

and didn't want to offend in the local area,

and was therefore travelling up the country along the south coast,

predominantly, and committing further crimes further afield.

And it seems the longer he got away with it,

the more Keady's confidence grew.

Con people, as time goes on, they get better and better at it,

cos it is their job and they know how to do it very well.

But DC Short was determined to put a stop to Keady's conniving ways once and for all.

She was now building up a body of evidence against Keady

and starting to understand how he operated.

He'd find a woman who was very professional and quite eloquent,

people such as barristers, doctors, and preyed on their better nature.

In many cases, Keady started proper relationships with these women,

but it was only ever so he could get into their bank accounts.

On one occasion, he was seeing three different people all at once.

He was telling one person he was going to work

and going to see the other person,

telling the other person he was going to stay with friends and going to see them.

And once he'd got his hands on their cash, Keady would up sticks

and repeat the same pattern somewhere else.

DC Short had now spoken to 12 different women

who'd lost money to Keady, and she was ready to take serious action.

We gathered enough evidence on him to effect arrest

and searches of the properties that he had, which included

seizures of thousands of pounds' worth of equipment and clothing.

Equipment that included the latest gear for kayaking,

expensive camera kit, designer clothes and watches.

Yep, it seems John Keady had expensive tastes

and had been fleecing women to pay for this lifestyle.

It became obvious that he didn't actually have the means to fund

the lifestyle that he was living.

It appeared that he was living from one person to another and literally

just milking them of their money and using that money for his next meal.

But the game was up.

John Keady was arrested and brought in for questioning.

Even under the pressure of interrogation,

smooth-talking Keady had an answer for everything.

We tried various interview tactics which were known to trip people up,

like questioning people backwards, things like that,

that makes it much harder to be able to maintain the truth.

We tried everything, and he STILL managed to profess that lie.

Even after being charged and bailed, Keady had the audacity

to target additional women, including Laura.

In the end, we had to plead with the magistrates to just remand him in custody,

cos I didn't think we were going to get him to stop any other way.

Fortunately, the court agreed and put Keady on remand in prison while he awaited trial.

He had been charged with 36 counts of theft, fraud and deception,

and initially he pleaded not guilty.

But in May 2010, just before the trial began,

he changed his mind and pleaded guilty to 19 of the offences.

When the judge delivered his speech and his sentence,

he just seemed completely passive.

I looked at him and it just seemed... He just seemed completely...

Didn't care.

It seemed like an ordinary day in the life of John Keady.

But in fact it was the end of his days as a free man.

Keady was sentenced to...

It was an enormous sense of relief that justice had been done,

that he was going to prison.

The biggest thing for me was the fact that whilst he was in prison,

he couldn't hurt anybody else.

Unfortunately, whilst John Keady showed no remorse for his victims,

the consequences were shattering.

I can no longer trust people.

It takes a lot for me to start talking to new people.

In fact, I've not allowed new people into my life since then.

If you plan to meet someone through online dating,

here are some words of advice.

My advice to anybody would be to not put too much information

on your profile, maybe set yourself up a separate e-mail account,

something that is not going to lead you to any personal details

about your home or your work or what your actually do for a living.

And, you know, go and meet someone with somebody else

and get to know them before you start disclosing too many details.

Before we go, there's just time to tell you about some of the latest scams out there.

I've come to meet a representative from Trading Standards

to get the low-down on what you should be looking out for.

Today, we're looking at a scam

that targets people's lack of knowledge about their home computer.

OK, so, what are they dealing with right now?

There's a scam at the moment where someone is calling people

and saying "We're from Microsoft," and they've detected there is

a scam on their computer, a virus of some kind.

All they need from that is their Wi-Fi password

so they can get information from their computer.

So, this surprises me, because other passwords, yes, I can understand,

but my Wi-Fi password?

I didn't think that was contentious at all.

Well, that's their way of them getting access to your computer,

connecting to what you're seeing on your computer.

So they can gain access to your bank statements,

your bank account details and any other personal information

you've got on there - address books and so on.

So, Trading Standards advice?

Fraudsters will for ever be coming up with new ways to get you

to part with your cash, but armed with a little bit of knowledge,

you could be one step ahead of them.

Stay safe, and I'll see you next time.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd