It makes my blood boil that he not only stole all your savings but urged you to take out a bank loan to squeeze yet more money out of you.
You believed that the details you saw on Facebook Dating, of a handsome 32-year-old from Orpington in south London, were genuine.
You trusted this would-be romantic interest, but once he had gained your confidence, he embarked on his wicked plan to defraud you.
I felt the series of transactions, passing from your bank to buy the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, and then out again to a fake app masquerading as a genuine service, should have raised a red flag.
There are databases where cryptocurrency exchanges do share information about dubious accounts, but Binance said that unless a rogue address had been flagged up, it could not know in advance when one was suspicious.
Taking these and other details into account, including the sophistication of the fraudster and the fact you did not benefit from the money you borrowed, it decided to refund the £20,000 loan as a gesture of goodwill.
This is because your case fell outside the scope of the “Contingent Reimbursement Model” code, which some banks use to fully refund victims following a “no-fault” fraud.
I also contacted Facebook, which played host, albeit unwittingly, to the fraudster, and asked what it did to combat these crooks.
The dating site offers a variety of safety tips, which I am sure you wish you had known about and considered.
If the profiles themselves do not set off alarm bells, then it is vital to be alert to other key signals.