0:01

This is a CBC Podcast. Who

0:10

is Janessa? Host, Hannah

0:12

Adjala, embarks on a wild search

0:15

for an adult entertainment star whose

0:17

images are being used in global

0:19

catfishing schemes. The investigation

0:22

takes listeners from the UK to

0:24

Italy West Africa and the

0:26

US, uncovering a criminal network

0:28

of scammers using image

0:31

to lure victims into financial and

0:33

emotional duress. Love

0:35

Janessa is an eight part original

0:37

podcast from the BBC World

0:39

Service and CBC Podcast

0:42

Now, here's the first episode of

0:44

Love Janessa.

0:48

A BBC World Service and CBC Podcast

0:50

Production, Before we start,

0:52

please note this series contains adult

0:55

themes and strong language. So

0:58

this is her. Initial message in this

1:00

conversation. Okay.

1:02

Me, you got me so worried as

1:05

I keep thinking so much about you.

1:07

I miss you so badly. I'd

1:09

like to send you something for Valentine's Day.

1:12

Maybe you could buy that car we talked about

1:14

so we could take a drive along the coast.

1:17

Uh-huh. I would love that.

1:20

Me. Make sure it's a good

1:22

one. Why am I sending money

1:24

to Ghana anyway? That's

1:26

in Africa, isn't it? You told

1:28

me you're in Spain. I'm

1:30

not really happy about sending fifty

1:33

thousand dollars to Africa to buy a car.

1:37

Honey, trust me as your wife

1:39

as I won't disappoint you because I love

1:41

you so much. So

1:43

you probably think you know what's going on

1:45

here. A fraudster is trying

1:48

to con this guy by text message.

1:50

Me, Okay. I trust

1:53

you, but make sure it's got

1:54

warranty. Are

1:55

you okay? I've been so worried about

1:57

you since the operation.

1:59

The person who's performing this dramatic

2:02

reading of his text is Simon

2:04

Debrassel. Okay,

2:07

my love. I'm so happy. Me,

2:09

good. I can't wait to see you with

2:12

your double d boob. That's

2:14

gonna be so much fun. You

2:16

can tell he's been primed for a scam.

2:19

The flattery, the money,

2:22

the boob job. I

2:25

can't wait to kiss and

2:27

make deep love to you all

2:29

day. You're my king and

2:31

goddess. I love you and

2:33

I want to feel your sweet arms around

2:36

me. You're getting me so We're now

2:38

decades into living our lives

2:40

online. And anyone

2:42

with an inbox has probably been pinged

2:45

by a dodgy solicitation. But

2:47

even if online wear men's scams are

2:50

totally recognizable with

2:52

lines like you are my king

2:54

and goddess. A shocking

2:57

number of people keep getting pulled into

2:59

them. Honey,

3:01

I wish you could assist me with some

3:03

meds and food stuffs okay.

3:06

Me. But I gave you

3:08

five thousand dollars only last week

3:10

for your operation, remember. Then

3:16

she sent me a picture of of of Janessa.

3:19

Topless in the bath. Obviously, Topless because she's

3:21

in the bath. A picture

3:23

of a woman known online Janessa

3:27

Brazil. And it's

3:29

a picture that he's seen before.

3:32

Because this isn't the romance scam you

3:34

think it is. Simon

3:36

isn't communicating with just one account.

3:39

One potential con artist. He's

3:42

chatting with dozens, all

3:45

of them are using the same

3:47

photos. All of them

3:50

claiming to be the same woman.

3:53

This is Janessa, it? This

3:57

is Janessa, your wife. That's

4:03

a good time. Thank you. There's

4:06

more. There's there's loads more.

4:12

From CBC Podcasts, and the

4:14

BBC World Service. My name

4:16

is Hamajala, and this

4:19

is Love Janessa. The

4:25

story of my wild quest

4:27

to find a woman who's face

4:29

and body is the bait used

4:31

in catfishing schemes. Around

4:33

the world. Episode

4:41

one from my world to

4:43

yours. When

4:49

we talk, Simon is looking out the window

4:51

of his country home. What

4:53

he described sounds like Storybook

4:55

England. I

4:58

live in Wilshire, which

5:00

is very rural on sheep

5:02

farm in fact surrounded by lots

5:05

of sheep. And at the moment, the

5:07

lambs are just appearing. So

5:09

there's Lam's bouncing around in the

5:10

fields. Simon is a

5:12

lot of impressive things. He's

5:14

a journalist a father to grow in

5:16

children. He collects antiques

5:19

and does photography. He's had

5:21

a long notable career covering

5:24

all kinds of stories, like the fall

5:26

of the Berlin Wall and the discovery

5:28

of Ozzie the Iceman, a guy

5:31

who was frozen inside an Italian

5:33

glacier

5:33

for five thousand years.

5:36

Where are you actually? There's a lot of interest.

5:38

Yeah. I'm in Lagos Nigeria. This is

5:40

where I spent a lot of my time at sleep working.

5:43

We've got a BBC

5:43

office. So

5:44

have you got an apartment there? Or have you got

5:47

somebody to stay in? But this story is

5:49

different for Simon. More personal.

5:52

A little delicate.

5:56

It

5:58

was New Year's Eve twenty

6:01

eighteen. Simon was getting ready

6:03

to go out. Well, I got

6:05

a notification that I'd been sent a message,

6:07

and I think it was on Twitter. And

6:10

it was from someone that I didn't know, but then

6:12

I occasionally do get messages

6:14

from people I don't know in this

6:15

one. The

6:15

message was a compliment. The

6:18

right to admire some photos he'd posted.

6:20

I've seen them and she wrote how

6:22

nice it was to see someone taking

6:24

proper pictures. Pop black and

6:26

white pictures with film because

6:28

I still use film rather than digital and

6:31

send me greetings, you said from my part

6:33

of the world to yours. It was nice.

6:37

Seems quite strange we were saying

6:39

something good and wishing you

6:41

all the best and your family all the

6:43

best. For the New Year, it was

6:45

a woman who calls

6:47

herself Shirley, except it had

6:49

been spelt

6:50

Shirley, which seemed a

6:52

little strange. To clarify,

6:55

her Twitter handle wasn't Shirley,

6:57

but Shirley. SHR

7:00

ILEY, followed by a

7:02

bunch of numbers. But anyway,

7:04

I just replied returning

7:07

your greetings and wishing you a happy new

7:09

year. Where in the world

7:11

are you? Because she'd said

7:13

sending you greetings from my part of the world.

7:15

After hitting send, Simon

7:17

went to a party throwing in the New Year

7:19

with friends. He got home after

7:22

two AM and noticed a wham

7:24

of new messages on his computer.

7:26

Shoney wanted to get to know him better.

7:28

She told him she was living in Flint.

7:31

Flint, Wales, he wondered?

7:33

Nope. Flint, Michigan in

7:35

the US. Acute misunderstanding.

7:39

And

7:39

then having broken the ice like that, she

7:42

was a little bit more forthcoming and told me that

7:44

she'd been a TV presenter in Rio

7:46

and had some difficult personal circumstances,

7:49

had to leave the country and

7:51

recruited by a I

7:53

think it was a green energy company

7:55

that she was representing in

7:56

Michigan. They sent a few messages

7:59

back and forth. The compliments

8:01

about Simon's photography kept

8:03

coming.

8:04

That ain't small talent. And

8:07

I hope you know that people with this kind

8:09

of gift are few in the world.

8:11

So

8:11

I can imagine that you probably had

8:14

a look at the profile picture quite quickly.

8:16

Yeah. And I mean and

8:18

she looked perfectly

8:20

respectable and well

8:23

dressed, well presented young

8:26

woman, and she said she had

8:28

two children. So I imagine that she was

8:30

probably, you know, late twenties or

8:32

early thirties. I've seen pictures of

8:34

the woman who reached out to Simon.

8:37

And while we're talking, I have

8:39

a few of them open on my laptop.

8:41

Here's what I see. A racially

8:43

ambiguous, beautiful

8:45

woman, not the type that would need to

8:47

wear a ton of

8:48

makeup. Dark hair and eyes

8:50

The gym is certainly her friend.

8:54

Over

8:56

the next few weeks, Shelley and

8:58

Simon became digital pen pals.

9:01

Her backstory was complex and

9:03

stuffed with drama. Her father

9:05

had been killed in a car accident accident. She'd

9:07

had an affair with her manager who was a

9:09

drunk and a drunk at it. To

9:11

get away from him, she up and

9:13

left. Now she was living in

9:15

Flint, Michigan. Supporting her

9:17

kids and mother in a six

9:19

bedroom

9:19

house. So many details. She

9:22

was kind of dizzying. I

9:26

just thought that we were having a conversation

9:29

because I basically spent

9:31

most of my life online because it was

9:33

my

9:33

job. I get literally sometimes

9:36

two hundred emails and messages a

9:38

day.

9:38

And so it was just something that's nice

9:41

to break it up from what my normal work

9:43

routine was. And because the time

9:45

difference, a lot of it would arrive

9:47

while I was asleep, so I time messages

9:49

when I woke up in the morning and things.

9:51

So so it was quite nice to be

9:53

able to have a communication with

9:55

with someone on the other side of the world interesting

9:58

story to

9:58

tell. At the

10:00

time, Simon was married. He

10:02

was in his late fifties and didn't have

10:04

a lot of first hand

10:05

experience. With online flirting.

10:07

So when a sudden type of

10:10

message arrived, the kite was not

10:12

so novel to those of us who grew

10:14

up online He was

10:16

thrown.

10:17

It was all perfectly innocuous until

10:19

she asked me for a picture of

10:21

my dick, which

10:24

I found it a little

10:26

bit surprising, and I did tell her

10:28

that I would never ever consider

10:30

sending anybody even if I knew

10:32

them, a picture like

10:34

that. And

10:34

asked her why she'd asked me. And,

10:37

I mean, she didn't really answer

10:39

that.

10:40

Pretty quickly, the exchanges spun

10:42

out into other kinds of requests.

10:45

I'll be going to make my hair

10:47

and also do some few shopping

10:49

next weekend, and I'll love for

10:51

you to pay for it if that's okay

10:53

with you.

10:53

It was not okay.

10:56

Simon said no. And

11:00

she then asked for I

11:02

think, three hundred dollars.

11:04

And I told her I wouldn't give it to

11:06

her. She got quite abusive. And

11:09

I said, look,

11:11

can't honestly, why

11:13

would I send you three

11:15

hundred dollars? But wouldn't you

11:17

possibly put it down to maybe like a cultural

11:19

thing? Because I'm I'm

11:21

Nigerian and it's it's very

11:24

in cultures and traditions for

11:26

men to fund the lifestyles

11:28

of

11:28

women. I did think that was a possibility.

11:31

And she

11:33

actually said that. She said men always

11:35

fun there. Well, I said, Lee, you're not my

11:37

worst. So she has

11:39

her own job. She's got her own career. I mean, why will

11:41

I need send money to someone that I don't

11:44

know and I didn't. But, I

11:46

mean, the fact is that at that

11:47

point, I realized that she was

11:49

a

11:49

scammer. And that she was trying

11:52

to get me to send her

11:54

money, and she

11:56

probably wasn't even in

11:57

Flint, Michigan. She might

11:59

well be in anywhere in the

12:01

world. So

12:03

Simon put on his journalist hat. He

12:05

ran Shirley's profile pictures through

12:07

a reverse image search

12:08

engine. It's a kind of matching

12:11

software that locates the same

12:13

image on other websites. If

12:15

there are other copies on the Internet, it will find

12:17

them and tell you where they're from.

12:19

And each one I put in

12:22

came back with this Janessa Brazil.

12:25

Janessa Brazil. Simon

12:28

did a quick search on IMGB, an

12:31

online data a base of millions of

12:33

movies and TV shows that

12:35

list cast and crew. There

12:37

she was with a single credit.

12:40

Girls gone dead. A low budget

12:42

film from twenty twelve, where

12:44

bikini clad spring breakers are

12:46

murdered by a store coat will a

12:48

medieval war hammer. Crazy

12:50

girls are luminous. Go

12:53

crazy. It's built

12:55

as a comet

12:55

upstairs. I'm on the a list.

12:57

Yeah. It's a it's a salaried girl down here

12:59

named Destiny. Since they're off to night, a

13:01

lot of somebody at the door. So

13:04

of this. Janessa

13:09

Brazil's character is listed as

13:11

topless, Slide Go. A

13:13

few more clicks, and Simon had uncovered

13:16

hundreds of videos and stills,

13:18

a wave of not

13:20

safe for work content, starring

13:22

Janessa. Not hardcore,

13:25

but explicit. Sex

13:27

toys, showers, masturbation.

13:31

Shirley or Janessa, actually

13:33

known, was popular on sites like

13:35

pornhub and Bank Bank. The

13:37

tornado

13:38

of x rated content was surprising.

13:41

But then he found something

13:43

even wilder. Googling

13:46

her, I did discovered that she was also

13:48

according to a website I found,

13:51

the most impersonated person

13:53

in the entire

13:54

world. With over a hundred

13:56

thousand fake IDs using

13:58

her photographs.

14:01

It's hard to measure if a hundred

14:04

thousand fake profiles is actually

14:06

an accurate number.

14:07

But if you search the name, Janessa Brazil,

14:11

millions of results come back.

14:13

And Simon discovered that the internet

14:15

is filled with angry men

14:17

who'd been taken in by images

14:20

of Their

14:22

stories are heartbreaking millions

14:24

of dollars

14:25

lost, marriages destroyed.

14:29

Simon

14:29

had stumbled into the grim world

14:32

of catfish victims. A

14:35

catfish is someone who uses a

14:37

fake online profile to

14:39

lure an unsuspecting person into

14:41

a relationship, sometimes

14:43

to steal from them. There

14:46

was a

14:46

website called ramanscan dot com,

14:49

which was the one that said Janessa was

14:51

the most impersonated person

14:53

in the world. And

14:55

it also pointed out that she was not

14:57

herself responsible for

14:59

any of the frauds that were perpetrated in

15:01

her name because these were pictures that have been

15:03

stolen from her and

15:05

used by other people. The scammers

15:07

were sharing images. And

15:10

maybe even sharing details

15:12

of victims as far as I could work out

15:14

later. And it's a huge

15:16

industry. I mean, she was just one tiny

15:18

part of of absolutely

15:20

massive fraud that's going all around

15:23

the world. So

15:25

Simon was now certain that Shirley was

15:27

a fake. Yet another

15:29

scammer using Janessa Brazil's

15:31

image. By that

15:33

point, she was already a lot

15:35

less interested in his photography than

15:37

she had been in the

15:38

beginning. In fact,

15:40

she had some demands

15:42

She said that she needed the money to tide her

15:45

over during the Christmas New Year season

15:47

because basically she wasn't back to

15:49

work until the middle of January and she just

15:51

needed to muck the money for her

15:52

kids. So

15:52

he asked

15:53

me to send her three hundred

15:55

dollars. The

15:56

tone was almost threatening.

16:00

Cash, How much can you get me

16:02

and when? After doing it for

16:04

me, I'll know that you'll be there for me and

16:06

will never disappoint me. You

16:08

still don't trust me. If you

16:10

ain't do it, that's fine. But

16:12

don't try pulling my ear

16:13

first. I don't like it when someone is making

16:16

it hard for me. She

16:18

said, if you really loved me,

16:21

you'd do what I asked you to do.

16:23

And then you responded. And

16:25

I responded. You used a

16:27

fake identity, a false

16:29

story, and stolen

16:31

photographs, why the fuck should I

16:33

give you anything at all? Simon

16:36

blocked and reported

16:37

Shirley. Twitter killed the

16:39

Janessa number one

16:42

was done. Simon

16:53

was now determined to find

16:55

the real He

16:57

wanted to turn his quest into

16:59

an

16:59

article. He began sifting

17:01

through accounts using the name, Janessa.

17:04

I just thought,

17:06

well,

17:06

this is a great story. I'm gonna look into

17:09

this because these old people obviously

17:11

Janessa Brazil. Some of them didn't even

17:13

really claim to be, but they were using her pictures,

17:15

and some of them did claim to be, and they

17:17

were using other people's pictures. And there

17:19

were some who were using the Janessa

17:21

Brazil and using her picture. So I

17:23

I emailed a selection of them just to get

17:25

a conversation

17:26

going. It wasn't long before

17:29

he had back from one.

17:30

Good evening. My love. And

17:32

them, a mother. I dreamed you

17:34

were close to me on bed. As you

17:36

kiss and hold me tightly. You make love to

17:39

me and got me pregnant. I

17:41

wanna fall asleep in your arms

17:43

always as you kiss and gaze into

17:45

my

17:45

eyes. The

17:46

propositions were goofy, but kind of

17:49

intoxicating too. Simon

17:52

was determined to keep it professional.

17:56

After

17:56

the initial approach, which

17:58

I was completely bit

18:01

mused by III was

18:04

doing this as a journalist. I was

18:06

really careful about how I how I

18:08

dealt with this woman and and and why I said

18:10

to her soon. So I'm not the

18:12

average punter who may be taken in by

18:14

the woman on the end of the line

18:16

or sort of was keen

18:18

to reveal too much about

18:20

myself. But still,

18:22

as his inbox overflowed,

18:24

Simon was coming to understand

18:26

the power, the intimacy in

18:29

these exchanges. That total

18:31

strangers over the internet could

18:33

form such thrilling

18:34

connections. And

18:35

I can see that some

18:38

people who are lonely

18:40

or needy might find it

18:43

quite sort of

18:45

rewarding because every single

18:47

conversation started off with

18:50

How are

18:50

you, my darling? Have you cleaned

18:52

your teeth today? Have you had a shower

18:55

yet? Are you

18:55

warm enough? The wife that you've

18:58

never met. Your online

18:59

wife. What exactly? You don't know? You've

19:02

already it really felt like

19:03

that. When Simon responded

19:06

to one professor, Another one would pop up

19:08

in his inbox. The geneticists

19:10

were starting to multiply.

19:13

I mean, The obvious ones would

19:17

start referring to me as my husband --

19:19

Oh, gosh. -- within

19:21

five minutes of starting a conversation. Simon

19:25

social media accounts became a

19:28

cascade of geneseopics. One

19:30

Janessa was topless. Another was

19:33

wearing Mickey Mouse ears. There

19:35

was Janessa in sweatpants, in

19:37

a bikini, in a

19:39

bandaged dress, so many

19:41

accounts, so many

19:43

geneticists. Simon

19:44

kept asking them, who are

19:47

you really?

19:48

But the Genesa shrugged off the

19:51

question, they had different approaches.

19:54

One Genesa had a sick

19:56

mother. Another needed money

19:58

for a car. You

20:01

got me so worried as I keep

20:04

thinking so much about you. I

20:06

miss you so badly. It's

20:08

Valentine's

20:08

tomorrow, and I am on my

20:10

own again. Honey, I'm not feeling

20:12

well since yesterday. I wish you could assist

20:14

me with some vital mets and food

20:17

stuffs.

20:17

Okay. The stories were

20:20

so complex. But even Janessa

20:22

couldn't keep track of the

20:23

details, what they had asked for from

20:26

Simon and what he'd agreed to.

20:28

Simon wrote back But I gave

20:31

you five thousand dollars only

20:33

last week for your

20:35

operation. Remember?

20:36

And

20:36

no. You haven't given her

20:39

any money. Yes, honey,

20:41

but the doctor prescribes some meds

20:43

I need to buy for the health on the

20:46

operation. It very vital meds

20:47

vape, very important to my health.

20:50

Simon noticed that a lot of these

20:52

tech circled back to West

20:55

Africa. This is

20:56

Janice, your wife, hearing Ghana

20:59

from Spain, due to my terrible

21:01

situation on my surgery operation.

21:03

This place is much better and

21:05

alright for the treatment. I'm gonna

21:07

get back from recovery sooner.

21:13

This is where

21:13

I come in.

21:15

I'm British Nigerian,

21:18

and I divide my time between

21:21

London and Lagos.

21:23

I've also

21:23

spent time in Ghana. So to

21:26

me, this story is

21:28

personal. Not

21:29

all internet fraud originates in

21:32

West Africa, but it

21:34

does have a reputation. Maybe

21:36

you've heard of the four nineteen

21:38

or Nigerian I

21:41

can't stand these associations. It

21:43

doesn't speak of the Africa, I

21:46

know. And I'm

21:46

wary of in a story that could

21:49

amplify these impressions.

21:50

But I'm also a

21:52

millennial who spends a lot of time

21:55

clicking, liking, swiping.

21:58

Someone who got her

22:00

privacy very carefully. The

22:03

selfies on my phone would probably not

22:05

be interesting to a scammer, but

22:08

they are

22:09

mine. As Simon is talking,

22:11

I feel for Janessa. She

22:14

seems to have lost control of her

22:16

image on an unimaginable scale.

22:19

And I want to know, what

22:23

happened? Simon

22:26

also wondered what the real Janessa Brazil

22:29

the striking woman in the pictures would make up

22:31

all this.

22:32

He wrote to

22:33

a modelling agency that seemed to represent

22:36

her asking Did you know your

22:38

images being used by scammers?

22:40

To Simon's surprise,

22:43

he got a response.

22:57

Simon receives an email from

22:59

but get this. She told

23:01

him her real name was Vanessa.

23:04

And she basically said,

23:09

thank you for alerting me to this. I'm well aware of

23:11

it. This scam has

23:13

been so enormous

23:15

that I'm absolutely unable

23:17

to work at the

23:18

moment. And

23:19

it's made my life a misery. I've been

23:22

subject to court

23:24

proceedings in Florida. I

23:26

even had one man who

23:28

claimed that he'd given me two

23:30

million dollars that I'd

23:33

embezzled from him. And

23:35

I was taken to court,

23:37

my assets are being frozen.

23:39

I'm not allowed to post

23:41

anything in public online.

23:44

And I'm basically

23:46

struggling to try and clear my name so

23:48

that I can get back to work

23:49

again. The person using the

23:52

name Janessa told him that she had been

23:54

the victim of a hack. Her personal

23:56

photos were stolen, and her

23:58

image had spiraled out across

24:00

the Internet. Now, Simon was on the receiving

24:02

end of yet another drama

24:04

pack story, and he was a

24:06

little wary by this point. And

24:09

so I said, well, how do

24:11

I know who you are? He wanted

24:14

cooperation.

24:16

She gave me her name and I

24:18

was able to trace that name to a

24:21

house in Florida near Tampa.

24:23

And I found it on a estate

24:26

agent's website and it had

24:28

interior shots of the house. And

24:30

the furniture in the estate agent's

24:32

shots was exactly the same as

24:35

the ones in her glamour

24:37

shots. So the pictures had been

24:39

taken in the same room in

24:41

in in Janessa's house that

24:43

Vanessa was registered

24:45

up. So it was pretty

24:48

convincing. Simon asked for a

24:50

selfie and she sent one. It was a

24:52

picture of the woman known online as

24:53

Janessa Brazil. But a little

24:56

older than in other pictures, maybe

24:58

in her

24:58

forties, not too made up.

25:01

The kind of casual picture anyone might have

25:03

on her

25:04

phone. The excessive

25:06

data which is the information that

25:09

comes attached to photograph was

25:12

current, and it appears to have been taken

25:14

like the day before rather than

25:16

than the other ones, which have been taken

25:18

up previously and months before

25:20

or even years before. And then she sent

25:23

me a picture of her Florida

25:25

driving license. Just

25:27

confirm that she was who she said she

25:30

was, and I

25:32

believe them. So

25:35

I then thought I had

25:39

contacted the real Genesa Brazil.

25:44

But

25:44

Simon didn't get to savor his victory for

25:47

long. The text which had

25:49

been cordial, filled with

25:51

gratitude, suddenly shifted

25:53

in tone. Vanessa said

25:55

she was in trouble. She told

25:57

Simon that she'd gone to Toronto to get

26:00

away from the whole Janessa Brazil

26:02

impostor

26:02

scandal. Now,

26:03

she was holed up in an expensive hotel

26:07

room.

26:07

She gave me the name of

26:09

the hotel and She

26:14

told me that while she was there, she received

26:16

an email from her bank in

26:18

Florida, telling her that her

26:20

credit cards had been

26:21

frozen. The

26:22

only way to unfreeze her credit cards would be to

26:24

visit her branch in Florida,

26:26

but she didn't

26:27

have money to settle her hotel bill

26:30

in Toronto. Or money for anything

26:32

else. So

26:34

she told me that she hadn't eaten three

26:37

days. I checked on the

26:39

weather app, and it was

26:41

minus thirty in Toronto at the time. She said

26:43

she hadn't got any proper

26:45

shoes and no warm clothes. She just

26:47

come for literally for a couple of

26:49

days and and was stuck in this

26:51

hotel. So

26:53

I said go to the manager and explain

26:55

the situation and write

26:57

in affidavit whatever it takes to say

27:00

that you will pay

27:02

and whatever you owe

27:04

them. When you get your account unfrozen,

27:06

which will be as soon as you get back

27:08

to Florida. And then

27:10

she said, I've done what you've told

27:13

me and he

27:15

asked to see my passport and then he took it away and

27:17

put it in a drawer and said I wouldn't get it

27:19

back until I paid

27:21

the bill for the room. And obviously, you believed

27:24

her. I didn't know whether to believe

27:26

her. I quite honestly, I

27:28

couldn't I couldn't prove it one way or the other.

27:30

Every question he threw at

27:31

her, she deflected. I'd

27:34

even

27:34

run the

27:35

hotel and they'd had no record

27:38

of her. Being in the

27:40

hotel. And when I put

27:42

that to her, she said, well, I'm not under my own

27:44

name because I've got a high

27:46

profile and I don't want the paparazz finding out that I'm

27:47

here. So there was always an

27:50

excuse.

27:51

Question. Could she send a photo of

27:54

herself in the hotel room? Answer.

27:57

The court order prevented her from

27:59

uploading pictures. Question. Could

28:01

she confirm her identity by

28:04

giving her father's first name? Answer.

28:07

She never shared private information.

28:09

Of course, Simon was

28:10

suspicious, but he'd been

28:12

pulled in. Simon

28:13

believed he had given this woman advice that

28:15

had led to her passport being confiscated.

28:18

He felt a bit guilty, especially

28:21

when she wrote that she hadn't eaten in

28:24

days. It was

28:25

snowing. She didn't even have a coat.

28:28

I was feeling really

28:31

bad that it was possible this person

28:33

whether or not it was

28:34

Janessa. Actually hadn't

28:36

had anything to eat because she was going

28:38

on about it so

28:39

much. He seemed to be in conversation

28:42

with a person who was suffering in real

28:45

time, right in front of

28:46

him. All these details, the

28:49

granular storytelling, plus

28:52

at researching for his article.

28:56

So he

28:58

sent her two hundred dollars.

29:01

PayPal blocked the

29:04

payment and asked me

29:06

to call their fraud department. And

29:10

When I spoke to them,

29:11

they told me

29:12

the reason that they blocked it was because my payment

29:14

had been made

29:16

or would

29:16

have been made.

29:18

To someone called

29:18

Hillary Wealth in

29:21

Legals in Nigeria. Where

29:23

I am

29:24

right now? Where you are

29:25

right now? Yeah. Of

29:29

course, when Simon confronted her, the

29:31

person calling themselves Vanessa

29:33

could explain away this hiccup

29:36

too. She was banned from PayPal due

29:38

to the scammers, so she had to use

29:40

her landlord's account and

29:42

he was from Nigeria. All

29:46

vanessa needed was five thousand

29:48

dollars to get to the

29:50

airport. journalist

29:52

in Simon was telling him to

29:54

keep going. Simon came up with

29:56

a

29:56

plan. He had a friend in

29:59

Toronto, Donald, a playwright

30:01

and vintage watch collector. He

30:03

called Donald and asked if he'd be prepared to

30:05

go to a bank machine and

30:07

withdraw a thousand dollars for someone staying at a

30:10

very nice downtown hotel. Simon

30:12

didn't say who. He

30:15

Donald the money. Donald

30:16

said, no problem. He

30:19

waited for the signal from

30:21

Simon.

30:23

Simon texted Vanessa

30:25

his plan. Dawn would come and

30:27

drop off the cash as long

30:29

as she showed her face

30:32

proved who she was. This

30:34

didn't go over well. She

30:36

went ballistic when I told her this,

30:39

and she claimed

30:41

that I should not have involved another

30:43

person in this business because

30:45

it was gonna cause her huge

30:47

amount of problems if it turns out

30:50

that The papers got a hold of

30:52

the story that Janessa Brazil was

30:54

penniless in having to rely on

30:56

charity to get

30:57

home. That's when Simon

30:59

reminded her that he was a journalist and

31:01

that he planned to write a story to

31:04

expose all the fake geneticists. She

31:06

didn't

31:06

like that either. You really

31:08

want to

31:09

bring me out into public. Is that it?

31:11

If you ever break my secrets,

31:14

My spirits will never forgive you.

31:18

Simon had reached the end of the

31:20

road.

31:20

He could no longer

31:22

deny what I'm sure you figured out already. While

31:25

researching the woman behind the images

31:27

that had been used to catfish

31:29

him, he'd

31:32

been catfished for the second

31:34

time.

31:34

Would you give her

31:37

some props for how she's

31:40

sort of constructed the best

31:42

scam, you know, from the Oh,

31:44

she was absolutely brilliant. She was

31:46

absolutely brilliant. I mean, it got it got

31:48

better and better. And then

31:51

The text just stopped.

31:54

The

31:54

conversation over a period

31:57

of days

32:00

fizzled

32:00

out. I mean, I'd even gone to the

32:02

extent of saying to go to the airport.

32:05

I'll pay you Uber

32:07

fare. I'm

32:09

I'm gonna pay your airfare to Florida.

32:11

Just take a picture of the departure board with

32:13

the flight on it and I will pay it

32:15

immediately by

32:16

card. And she never did

32:19

that of course because she couldn't she wasn't in

32:21

Toronto.

32:21

And that was

32:24

the end of Vanessa.

32:39

Simon published his article on the

32:42

scams in spring twenty twenty.

32:44

The timing

32:45

meant that the story was overshadowed

32:48

by the start of the global

32:50

pandemic.

32:50

But with so many potential

32:53

victims now stuck at home, lonely

32:55

and trying to live their lives

32:58

online, The crime he was

33:00

documenting only increased.

33:03

Today, Simon still gets

33:05

pinged by the occasional Janessa

33:07

clearly his info is being passed

33:09

around. But by who? Who is

33:12

on

33:12

the other end of these messages?

33:14

And from what part of the world

33:17

are they sending their

33:19

greetings? Because either the

33:21

person Simon connected with

33:23

was the real Janessa Brazil,

33:25

which would mean she's in on it,

33:27

or maybe these fake Vanessa

33:29

scams are seriously

33:32

elaborate affairs. Perhaps some might

33:34

use front companies. Others could

33:36

be run by people with the ability

33:39

to forge documents and

33:41

alter photos. Regardless,

33:44

it makes me wonder, what

33:46

does the real Janessa think of

33:48

all this? I'm

33:50

determined to finish what Simon

33:52

started. To figure out who

33:54

Janessa really is. How

33:56

her image became the ultimate bait

33:59

for catfishes. And how it got so

34:01

out of control. But

34:04

first, I need to find her.

34:08

So this is a lady

34:10

called Janessa, and I just wanted to

34:12

tell me if you've ever seen

34:15

this woman before.

34:25

We're sorry you have reached a number that has

34:27

been disconnected or is longer in service.

34:30

Please check the number and try your

34:32

call again.

34:34

And while

34:38

I'm trying

34:40

to track down Janessa,

34:43

I'm finding out that Simon got off

34:46

easy. Other people who got entangled with

34:48

Janessa didn't walk away so

34:52

undamaged. Some fell hard and paid a

34:54

high price. Every time

34:56

it was

34:56

an excuse like no, no, I can't or now,

34:58

no, I broke my phone or now this

35:01

phone doesn't work. Blah blah blah. So for almost

35:03

two months was like that. Initially, it was like

35:06

fifty euros, next one hundred, next

35:08

five hundred.

35:10

So I was sending like probably fifty to

35:12

twenty five k in the first

35:14

two, three months. That's

35:16

next time on love. Janessa.

35:29

Lav Genesa

35:34

is an Antica and Telltower

35:36

production for the BBC

35:38

World Service. And CBC Podcasts. I'm Hannah

35:40

Jala. Our producers are

35:42

Katrina Anstead and

35:44

Laura Raguaire. Associate

35:46

producer is Hayley Choi, sound

35:48

designed by Philip Wilson and Janine

35:50

White. Executive producers

35:52

are Stuart Cox and

35:53

J. G. Li. Emily

35:54

Cannell is our coordinating producer. Chris

35:57

Oak is executive producer

35:59

of CBC Podcasts. Ariff

36:03

Nirani is the director of CBC Podcasts, and

36:05

John Menell is the

36:07

podcast commissioning

36:08

editor. At the BBC

36:11

World Service. Thanks

36:14

for listening. A

36:20

BBC World Service

36:22

and CBC Podcast Production. That

36:24

was the first episode of

36:27

the brand new podcast love Janessa.

36:29

You can listen to more episodes everywhere you

36:31

get your podcasts. For

36:33

more CBC podcasts, go to CBC

36:36

dot c a slash podcasts.