British Retiree, 68, Left Homeless After Romance Scam Drains His Pension and Savings

A 68-year-old British retiree has been left homeless and without his savings after falling victim to an online romance scam in Thailand.

Simon Charles Hill, a former United Nations flight operator from Luton, moved to Bangkok about 11 years ago after retiring. He had been living on his UK state pension when scammers approached him on Facebook, posing as an American woman named Emily Smith.

The woman who needed money to unlock a $3 million inheritance

Hill said the woman contacted him through Facebook and quickly established a warm and convincing relationship.

The person using the name Emily Smith claimed she was due to receive an inheritance worth US$3 million, or around £2 million. However, she said various fees had to be paid before the money could be released.

She allegedly introduced Hill to a lawyer who was supposedly handling the sale of her property and the transfer of the inheritance.

Hill was told that once the required fees had been paid, the money would be transferred directly into his bank account.

The profile photographs showed a woman posing in sportswear. It is now suspected that the images may have been generated using artificial intelligence or that the scammers were using the identity and photographs of a real person without permission.

Hill sent his pension to the scammers

Believing the story, Hill began sending money as soon as his pension arrived. His state pension was approximately £500 a month. Over a period of just under five months, he made seven or eight transfers to the scammers.

After his pension was no longer enough to cover the payments, Hill began using his personal savings. Eventually, those savings were also exhausted.

The financial pressure quickly affected his everyday life. Hill could no longer afford his rent, electricity or food. Months after the scam began, he was evicted from his apartment.

With nowhere else to go, he spent several nights sleeping in the lobby of a hotel in the Surawong area of Bangkok.

“I was able to sustain myself for a while, but it wasn’t going to last,” Hill said. “And that’s when it dawned on me that I was actually homeless.”

Charity found him on July 9

Hill was eventually discovered by people who became concerned about his condition.

The Bangkok Community Help Foundation (BCHF) found him on July 9 and described him as “very frail and weak.”

The situation was complicated by Hill’s immigration status. He had overstayed his Thai visa and was therefore in the country illegally.

Hill said he had been advised that he could be placed in immigration detention.

Instead, Friso Poldervaart, a 34-year-old Dutch national and co-founder of BCHF, and the charity’s team decided to take him to the organisation’s Centre of Dreams shelter.

There, Hill was given a place to stay while he recovered. Initially, he was nervous about arriving at the shelter, but later said the care he received made him feel safe.

He also told the charity that he had feared ending up permanently on the streets after losing his home.

Nearly two months to get him back to Britain

Hill remained at the Centre of Dreams while BCHF worked to arrange his return to the United Kingdom.

The organisation spent almost two months organising fundraising and the practical arrangements required to repatriate him. BCHF eventually paid for his flight back to Britain.

Hill is now in the UK, where he is staying at a homeless shelter in London while waiting to enter assisted living.

Scammers reportedly traced to Nigeria

According to Friso Poldervaart, the people behind the scam were reportedly traced to Nigeria.

Hill’s money was sent to a Thai mule account — a bank account used to receive or move money obtained through criminal activity.

Poldervaart said the charity reported the case to Yan Nawa District Police. Information about the Thai bank account was also passed to the bank.

However, he said there had been no wider investigation that the charity was aware of and expressed little hope that Hill would recover his money.

Police confirm official complaint

Acting Police Major Loetchai Phiwlongchai, an investigation officer at Yannawa Police Station, confirmed that Hill had officially reported the scam in July.

Police said the complaint had been received and recorded as evidence and that the case would be handled in accordance with Hill’s legal rights.

Why romance scammers target vulnerable victims

Poldervaart said romance scammers often target older and vulnerable people who may be isolated.

In Hill’s case, the scam developed after the breakdown of his marriage to his Thai wife, leaving him living alone in Bangkok. The person behind the fake profile then built an emotional connection with him before repeatedly asking for money.

Poldervaart said Hill had sometimes suspected that he might be being scammed, but did not want to believe it because the relationship made him feel cared for after years without that kind of connection.

The case illustrates a common pattern in romance fraud: scammers may spend considerable time building trust before introducing financial problems that require the victim to send money.

For Hill, the consequences went far beyond losing money. The scam consumed his pension and savings, cost him his home and left him dependent on a charity for shelter and assistance in returning to Britain.