Rotterdam cop scams American woman out of €34,000 in Tinder hustle
A woman from Arnhem gave her then-boyfriend, a single father who she met through Tinder, a total of 34,430 euros to send his dying toddler to the U.S. for leukemia treatment. A few months later, she found one of the photos he showed her of his daughter on the internet when looking up childhood cancer.
"It was one of the first pictures I came across," she told AD. "It all turned out to be one big lie.”
After research, she realized her ex-boyfriend, Rotterdammer Cem O., had tricked her out of a large portion of her savings. She also found out she was not his only girlfriend –– he had relationships with other women and fathered children with two different mothers, AD reports.
The victim took the situation to the police. O. was discharged from the police force where he worked and promised to pay her back. But after sending her only 620 euros, he asked for that money back with another excuse.
The woman, who gave her testimony on Wednesday to the police judge, was saving to buy her first house with the money she gave O. She is undergoing therapy and is on sick leave from her job due to the experience.
O. did not show up to court. The judge expressed an inclination to give the man a prison sentence, because he "hasn't bothered to explain why I shouldn't send him to jail."
The public prosecutor agreed with the judge that O.'s actions were likely not a mistake, but a pattern: "If he does not show up, I think only one sentence is appropriate: six months in prison, two of which are conditional. I am afraid that this behavior inside him. We need to protect other potential victims from him.”
