Catfish Who Stole $19K From Woman Says She Has Now 'Adopted Him Like A Son'

One of the victims of a former fraudster who used the identity of a US soldier to attract "retired divorcees" and empty their bank accounts has welcomed him as a son.

Chris Bamibeli defrauded one victim of $19.5k by tricking her into falling for him with photographs of a wounded US soldier.

The woman, who Chris only recognized as Laura, had fallen in love and would keep sending him anything from $200 to thousands of dollars - trusting that he was her boyfriend.

Speaking exclusively to The Mirror, the fraudster admitted to using an Instagram account belonging to a "cute" and "handsome" US soldier to steal his identity.

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She was completely won over when he promised to utilize heartfelt stories to pull at the woman's heartstrings in the title.

He added: "I told her I'm on deployments, and I don't have access to my bank account.”

"Or I don't have access to my credit card, so I'm starving. I'm starving and I need to pay money for my rent or my bills."

Chris gave the impression that he was in a vulnerable situation and that Laura was the only person who could save him.

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"When someone is in a relationship with you, they don't want you to suffer," he said. "So I just used that opportunity to ask her for money."

Small contributions from Laura began to add up, and before long Chris had $20,000 of her money in his account.

But now that she was drowning in debt and suffering from mental health problems as a result of the situation, the American mother's life was collapsing.

Chris states that after seeing the suffering Laura had endured, he had a conversion experience and decided to live an honest life instead of continuing to commit fraud.

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Chris said: "I started feeling like a guilty conscience because this was the first time I scammed a lot of money like that.”

"My conscience was so so disturbing me like she'd become depressed because of my scamming.”

"She ran into debt, she couldn't be happy, she couldn't eat."

Chris revealed to Laura that the man she believed she was dating was him, a fraudster.

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He said: "I called her on a video call. But to my surprise, she didn't block me. And she ended up adopting me like a son.”

"She told me that she already forgave me and we've been talking since then."

Chris felt motivated to "let the world know what I did" by this act of kindness.”

Chris, who now works for Social Catfish, a business that uses reverse search technologies to stop internet scams, declared he intends to reimburse Lisa for every dollar he took.