Marisha Wallace was conned out of £60,000 by a man she was dating.
Marisha Wallace was scammed out of thousands by a man she was dating
The 38-year-old actress had just moved to London from the US to star in the West End musical 'Dreamgirls' and met a man on a dating app who promised to help her invest her savings but realised after a while that it had all gone wrong and has no idea how she "survived" any of the ordeal.
Speaking on ITV's 'This Morning', she said: "I meet this guy, and we go on a date and everything is great. He was very supportive of me during this time, and he was like a friend.
"He told me he was in finance and at the time, I'd been saving money for a really long time because I wanted to buy my mom a house.
"And so, instead of leaving that money just sitting in my account, I wanted to invest it and make money off the money that I had saved.
"And he was like 'I'll help you', he sent me to an account manager, I had many calls with him and did my due diligence. He worked for a reputable company, or so I thought, so I put the first amount in which was like £24,000, that was my savings.
"It was all very professional, there was a website, I could see the money that was there, the interest that it was accruing. I'd get cash back and I thought it was great.
"I'm a very trusting person, I did my research online, and the person was sitting in front of me. It's not like online like it is today. So I invest money, and we get it up to £60,000.
"I was on the set of 'Aladdin', the first film I'd ever done, and I was in my trailer. I texted him on a whim, and no one responded. I called, but no one responded. "The runner came to get me out of my trailer and I was in tears, I was crying.
"I knew instantly at that moment that it was wrong. I did the shoot, I did a show that night. I don't know how I survived any of it.
"You can't tell anyone, you have so much shame."
The former 'Celebrity Big Brother' contestant then became a "complete detective" and found out that everything about the investment scheme was fake, and there was nothing that could be done legally despite her having all the evidence.
She said: "So I finally got back in contact with the guy who was supposedly my friend, and he said it was all fine so I said 'I want my money out. Now.' and he said he'd put me back in contact with the other guy.
"I just had to play it cool for a couple of days, so I could cipher him for more information. I knew [the money] was gone but I had to pretend like it was all okay. I went complete detective, and I was online all night long. I finally called the company he was with. He wasn't real, the account manager was his brother. I had all of the information, and they said there was nothing they could do."