Prepare for the cold too and run into the new book of the chapter book! From Bestseller Duo Aaron Reynolds ...
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Dublin woman duped out of €25k after being ‘manipulated’ by fraudster pretending to be Coldplay’s Chris Martin
A DUBLIN woman was duped out of €25,000 after being “manipulated” by a fraudster pretending to be Coldplay’s Chris Martin.
Scammers used artificial intelligence to convince the woman to believe she was in a romantic relationship with the popular singer.
The con artist impersonating Coldplay’s Chris Martin contacted the woman after a comment she made to a post on Coldplay’s X account in 2021.
Speaking to RTE reporter Barry Lenihan, she said: “I didn’t believe it was true initially, but then I was like, could it be?
“And I gave my number, and he contacted me via WhatsApp and Facebook with fake Chris Martin accounts as well. And then, he contacted me on Skype.
“I think I gave a one-word reply to a post that they put up, and he contacted me from that. So there are, you see, trawling readers comments and targeting people that way.”
She continued: “He was like, ‘keep this to ourselves, you know, I can’t really go public because I’m a big name star’, like obviously [and] I want you to keep it secret.’
“And then he moved in Skype, and he kind of started grooming me a bit more and more.
“He built up trust, and he was very smooth. He’d be humorous in his conversation. He’d be kind with his words towards me. But he did say initially, don’t tell anyone that you’re talking to me.
“It was friendly initially, and then he kind of started saying I’m interested in you, and I like what I see in your pictures. He got to the point where he started asking me for flight money to come to Ireland to visit me.”
The Dublin woman told RTE’s Drivetime she ended up giving him a “large sum of money” as the scammer kept claiming his accounts “were frozen due to the cessation of tours” due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
She added: “I only did a search on Chris Martin after I got scammed, that I could see he had about €150 million in wealth and a girlfriend.
“I said to him at one point, ‘You have a girlfriend’. He was like, ‘No, that’s fake. It’s all for showbiz’. It’s put on talk.’
“He would contact me from 7am until 12am, all day long, talking and messaging me and being romantic. I thought it was the real person I was talking to, Chris Martin. It was going on for about four months.”
Scammers first asked between €150 and €400 to supposedly assist an orphanage Chris Martin had established, then €2,200 to help fund flight tickets.
The con artist then asked for a loan of €22,000 as he claimed he couldn’t access funds, adding to a loss of over €25,000.
‘DIFFERENT WOMEN’S BANK ACCOUNTS’
The woman said: “He started sending me images of the real Chris Martin, but they were like direct headshots of him looking at the camera, images of orphans that he said he was looking after.
“I got a phone call often. In the video, there was Phil Harvey, his manager, and Guy Berryman, another band member.
“He kept using different women’s bank accounts, three in the UK initially and then a woman in the US who I did the large transfer to.
“It was my pension account in Dublin. I had it in a savings scheme in Dublin. I went into the branch and I did three or four transfers of €5,000. If they had’ve probed me I would have said it’s a loan for Chris Martin. At that point, they would have realised it was a scammer.”
CRIMINAL COMPLAINT
It was when she talked to her brother that she realised she was scammed after he made contact with Coldplay head office in London.
She made a criminal complaint, and a cross-border investigation was mounted involving the PSNI and the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau.
Her bank has confirmed she was the victim of authorised push payment fraud, which happens when someone is tricked into sending money to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee.
She said: “I was devastated, really devastated. Like it was such a large amount of money. Initially. I was like, I was so embarrassed. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I was really depressed. I felt really stupid. I cried a lot.
‘STILL RECOVERING’
“I’m still recovering three years on. I have hope that I’ll get the money back, but I just don’t know what way it’ll work out.
“I’m fine, I’m trying to be positive. I’ve moved on. It’s a lot of money, but he didn’t harm me. I deleted all my social media. I don’t take phone calls from anyone randomly. I have caller ID on.”
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‘That looks serious’ – Tottenham star Dragusin forced off injured in yet another blow leaving TNT Sports pundit worried
TOTTENHAM suffered yet another injury blow as Radu Dragusin was forced off.
Spurs manager Ange Postecoglou has vented his frustration with recent squad setbacks ahead of IF Elfsborg’s Europa League trip.
He planned to take off centre-back Micky van de Ven at half-time against to ensure he keeps his backline fresh.
But it was replacement Dragusin who picked up a knee injury when the defender went down off the ball after a tussle with striker Jalal Abdullai.
He was taken off – replaced by forward Dane Scarlett – as replays revealed Dragusin coming down on his knee awkwardly.
TNT Sports’ Glenn Hoddle: “That looks quite serious because look, he plays the ball there and then he’s landed and wow, he holds his knee.”
Spurs have NINE first-team players sidelined through injury, including defenders Djed Spence, Cristian Romero and Destiny Udogie.
Keeper Guglielmo Vicario, Wilson Odobert, Timo Werner, Brennan Johnson, Dominic Solanke and James Maddison are also out.
Postecoglou – who has blamed Tottenham’s woeful league form on injuries – did make light of Dragusin’s knock.
The outspoken Aussie pretended to pull his hamstring when stretching for a ball that went out of play.
Spurs cruised into the last 16 of the Europa League thanks to goals in the final 20 minutes from Scarlett, Oyindamola Ajayi and Mikey Moore.
And on Dragusin’s injury, he said: “It is too early to say what it is, we will need to investigate futher. But it was his knee which is not good.
“We have another game on Sunday. The club will be working hard behind the scenes to see if we can get something done.”
Shelbourne boss Damien Duff dismisses ‘defending the title’ talk ahead of new League of Ireland season
DAMIEN DUFF has long since established his credentials as a manager who is prepared to get his hands dirty.
And, yesterday, he whipped out the WD40 but it was not the wheels of Shelbourne’s title defence he was looking to oil.
By common consensus, the ex-Chelsea and Ireland star has helped to sprinkle a bit of stardust on a league which was already on the up.
His embracing of the League of Ireland in general and Shels in particular helped it reach wider acclaim.
It culminated in a record TV audience for their final-day victory away to Derry City which ensured they brought Shamrock Rovers’ four-year reign as champions to an end.
But he bristled at the suggestion that Shels would be looking to ‘defend’ or ‘retain’ their league title, their first since 2006, although the club’s honours board which hung behind him has yet to be updated.
Duff said: “Saying ‘defend the title’ feels to me like you are taking a backwards step and just trying to protect something.
“It’s not about defending or retaining the title, it’s about winning the title.
“Retain, defend, they are words I don’t like and we haven’t been using them.”
He did concede that he would be picking the brains of the club’s new CEO Tomás Quinn on the challenge of backing up success, who won seven Leinster football titles with Dublin, though only one All-Ireland.
But he dismissed the notion that Shels were favourites who were being chased down by pack.
He said: “I don’t think we are favourites. I wouldn’t put us as favourites, we weren’t favourites last year, I don’t see us as favourites this year.
“Rovers will always be favourites, Derry have a very experienced Northern Irish international football team, St Pat’s are near-on favourites as they won nine games in a row.
“We are all on zero points. Defend, retain, chasing…. we all start off on a level par, for me it’s forgotten about.
“It should give the guys confidence but as for chasing, it doesn’t make sense as we are all on zero points.”
But the terms being used by journalists was not the thing causing him most annoyance at an event to launch the club’s away jersey, sponsored by Chadwicks.
There were tradesmen busy at work in Tolka Park’s main stand making improvements for the new season.
Underneath, Duff looked like a simmering pot waiting to boil over as the door into the bar swung open and closed repeatedly with an annoying screech each time.
Asked about it, he said: “Yeah, I’m on edge a bit. It’s nothing you have done.
“I guess it’s hunger, enthusiasm and drive. Sometimes that can come across as being a bit cranky.”
It is nothing new that managers here have to do jobs that their counterparts in more prestigious leagues would not have to contemplate.
For their previous league success, Pat Fenlon found himself marking the pitch because the club was in such dire straits that there was nobody else to do it.
Thankfully, there are no issues with wages these days but it was still quite the sight to see the two-time English Premier League winner returning later on with an oil can.
If that was a running repair, there has been a bit more remodelling of his squad, with two players – Daniel Kelly from Derry City and Ellis Chapman from Sligo Rovers – brought in from other clubs in the League.
Also in are two from outside, Mipo Odubeko from Fleetwood Town and free agent Kerr McInroy, whom Duff knew from his time at Celtic.
TRANSFER MARKET
Duff explained: “It would have been poor for myself, the staff and the club if we didn’t add to the squad.
“When you become champions and you win something, it’s very easy to sit back and trust it’s not broken but that’s absolutely the time to strengthen, so we have brought in a freshness.
“It’s never nice to let players go but we have done, and I think we have brought in some serious quality.
“You are always looking at all units of the team, we haven’t strengthened all units, if you look at our squad but we have brought in some serious quality.”
But he admitted that, when it came to recruitment, it was not a buyer’s market.
He said: “When there is scarcity of players, the players in demand can command bigger wages. That’s life. That’s why it’s important and we’ve strived to tie lads down.
“As much as it’s hard work for me, I feel sorry for players in the League of Ireland having one-year deals. I think nearly all our lads are tied down long-term deals.
“It’s the only way you can build. Outside of that, it’s ‘who’s out there?’ We don’t throw mad money at anybody. We like to spend well and wisely.
“I think we’ve done that, very, very, well. We tapped out on a couple because it didn’t sit right with us. For instance, that’s where you maybe have to look elsewhere and we did, ie. Mipo.
“Sometimes it’s your circle of friends, I don’t really have a circle of friends, but maybe circle of players you worked with before and Kerr was one I was always fond of.
“To cut your answer short, everyone can see there’s a scarcity.”
Duff was reluctant to be drawn on the challenge posed by Champions League football.
He claimed that he would not let his players look beyond the Presidents Cup final against Drogheda United next Friday to their league opener against Derry City a week later, never mind their European game in the summer.
But he said: “It’s aim for the stars in every competition.”
Shelbourne manager Damien Duff says Colin Healy was let down by FAI after abrupt exit
COLIN HEALY’S acrimonious exit from the FAI came as no surprise to Damien Duff.
Healy voiced his unhappiness with how the Association had dispensed with his services as assistant to the women’s senior team after manager Eileen Gleeson was not kept on.
Duff’s former Ireland team-mate claimed Football Director Marc Canham had indicated he would be kept on, something the Englishman denied.
And David Courell insisted the Cork man had misinterpreted a text message from him which Healy said indicated that it was the chief executive’s belief that it was the former Celtic midfielder’s decision to leave.
Shelbourne boss Duff quit as an assistant coach to the Ireland men’s team four years ago following an investigation into Stephen Kenny’s use of a motivational video prior to a friendly against England.
And he said: “First and foremost I think he’s utter class. I don’t say that about many people. He’s just a class, class guy.
“He’s been let down a few times over his career, back in the day, World Cup and Saipan. It’s all sliding doors moments in football.”
Healy was due to be called into the Ireland squad for the 2002 World Cup only for Roy Keane to change his mind about leaving.
When he did eventually pull out, it was too late for another change to be made.
Duff continued: “I know what’s gone on, I know he’s been let down, I know he’s been treated unfairly.
“I stand with Colin, that’s all I want to say on the matter. Brilliant guy, classy guy, and he’s been let down.
“I wasn’t surprised. Did I pick up the paper and go ‘wow, Jesus, I can’t believe that happened’? No, I didn’t.
“I read the headline and didn’t need to read the rest because I wasn’t surprised.”
Рене Зеллвегер і Х’ю Грант возз’єдналися на прем’єрі продовження «Щоденників Бріджіт Джонс» (фото)
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