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Well, this Daily Mail headline totally suckered me in:

Grandmother, 83, who married 37-year-old Egyptian toyboy after meeting him on Facebook issues warning against ‘scammers and con-artists’

Like an aging granny drawn to a failed asylum seeker, I just couldn’t help myself.

I read the article and, like Iris, found myself investing more and more…

Love Fraud

I knew the whole thing was stupid. I knew I’d get to the end and regret it.

And yet, here we are:

An 83-year-old grandmother who met an Egyptian toyboy lover less than half her age on Facebook has issued a stark warning against ‘scammers and con-artists’.

Wait. You’re saying it wasn’t real?

Iris Jones, 83, tied the knot with Mohamed Ibrahim, 37, in 2020 and assured critics, including those in her family, that their relationship would last.

Families can be soooo negative!

But last year it emerged she had thrown him out of her home near Weston-super-Mare and replaced him in her affections with her cat Mr Tibbs.

I’m not sure a cat is an upgrade on Moh.

Mr Tibbs, after all, is a 12-year-old who completely ignores Iris except for when he wants food.

Moh, in happier times (like when he got his visa) with Iris (who organised his visa).

In a Facebook post, Ms Jones said: “A warning to all vulnerable women online, chatting to scammers and con-artists, thinking they are messaging genuine males on legitimate dating sites.”

How was an 83-year-old grannie named Iris to know that a 37-year-old named Mohamed wasn’t serious about her?

The scam could have happened to anyone, by which I mean any one of Ethel, Agnes, Rosemary or Gertrude.

“Be aware that these criminals are only interested in getting their filthy paws on your money, and will sweet-talk you for weeks or even months in order to achieve their goal.”

Wait. It only took Iris months to realise Mohamed wasn’t really interested in settling down and starting a family with an elderly woman well past the age of childbirth?

Iris, you’re the ultimate scam hunter!

“I, myself have been targeted by four scammers in the last few months and regard myself now as a competent scam hunter!”

That’s what I said! Nothing gets by you, Iris!

But wait, how does she keep being targeted? Hmmm.

The pensioner opened up about her first night of passion with Mr Ibrahim after she travelled to Egypt to meet him.

It was at this point that I seriously considered putting down the newspaper.

Do we really want to hear about Iris’ “first night of passion”?

Then I realised that a night of passion for 83-year-old Iris was likely a cup of warm milk and an episode of The Vicar of Dibley.

The couple married in November 2020 and they spent almost two years apart before Mr Ibrahim was finally granted a visa which allowed him to move into Ms Jones’s bungalow.

Granny is contacted online by Moh, who convinces her that he’s been waiting all his life to wed a wrinkly Brit.

There’s only one catch. He has no money and cannot ever leave his third-world hellhole to live off Iris’s life savings unless she arranges it for him.

Alternatively, Moh could travel from Egypt to Turkey, get a rickety boat to Greece, stow away in the undercarriage of a semi-trailer to France, and then cross the English Channel in a rubber dingy.

Nah, he was hot for Iris.

Romeo and Juliet could but dream of such a romance.

Hmmm. What to do?

Ever the romantic, Iris jumped on a plane and flew to Cairo, where she married Facebook Moh in a desert ceremony before returning to England to organise his visa and accommodation.

Ain’t love grand!

New Flame

Soon after, Mr Ibrahim moved on to another woman.

No one saw this coming.

Angela with the love of her life.

He started dating mother-of-11 Angela Rogers, 61, after he won her over with supermarket flowers.

Like I always say, if a bouquet from Coles doesn’t do the job, she was never your soul mate to begin with.

You can take that little bit of relationship advice to the bank.

Ms Rogers, who had been single for 14 years, told the toyboy that he could come and stay in her spare room, but admitted: ‘He’s the biggest mistake I ever made.’

And here we were, so sure that Mohamed from Cairo was going to be the best decision Angela ever made.

Damn!

Mr Ibrahim travelled 225 miles on the train from Somerset to Leeds where he picked Ms Rogers up, swung her round and told her she was his ‘Queen’.

He actually said, “I’m going to rob you CLEAN,” but with all the spinning around, Angela’s hearing aid was dislodged, thus accounting for the misunderstanding.

That, and the fact that Angela was well-practised in hearing what she wanted to hear.

He proceeded to buy her flowers and grapes from Marks & Spencer before cooking her up a Spaghetti Bolognese at her flat.

Despite planning to have him stay in the spare room, Ms Rogers admitted that he ended up in her bed where they had the ‘best sex’.

Eww.

Seriously, what’s wrong with the Vicar of Dibley?

Mr Ibrahim proposed to his new girlfriend on a foot-bridge over the A64 York Road in Leeds just five weeks after they started dating.

The guy is certainly a romantic.

Here’s a picture I found of the location:

It’s enough to make a woman jump.

For joy, I mean. Obviously.

Although Ms Rogers declined, this did not put Mr Ibrahim off, proposing a second time without ever buying her a ring.

If the footbridge proposal doesn’t work, always follow up with the ringless proposal. She deserves it.

Ms Rogers splashed out £5,000 on her younger beau. She claims she funded his clothes, trainers, aftershave, bus fares and meals among other luxuries.

She gave him £550 after he told her his father was ill and he needed to visit him in Egypt. He later told her that his dad had made a miraculous recovery and promptly returned to the UK.

He also allegedly asked her for £800 to pay for his divorce from Ms Jones.

Hmmm.

Call me a cynic, but it’s starting to sound like Moh was just using her for her… money?

There, I said it.

Ms Rogers is determined to find out the truth about why Mr Ibrahim married Ms Jones and why he used both elderly women.

No doubt.

But will she ever know? Was it about money? Or was it about love? Maybe Moh just wanted someone special with whom to watch reruns of The Vicar of Dibley.

Along with the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti, Moh’s motives remain one of the universe’s great mysteries.

But wait. Angela has a hunch:

Ms Rogers fears that Mr Ibrahim is using women to extend his visa, which runs out in June.

What?

No!

Surely not.

___

Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report.

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