I was the victim of a staggering $1m romance scam where an Aussie woman allegedly pretended to be my gold mining heiress lover. This is my unbelievable story of porn stars, African gangsters and deception
A lonely American doctor who was allegedly fleeced of $1million in an African romance scam featuring a glamorous Australian swim school teacher has detailed how the extraordinary saga unfolded.
The 75-year-old radiologist from New York – who requested anonymity to protect his family’s privacy – first met a woman known as ‘Grace Jade Erskine’ on a dating website in November 2018.
The wealthy doctor told Daily Mail Australia that the pair struck up a connection, talking about everything from their childhoods to their families and a possible future together.
But he was unaware that Grace never actually existed, and was simply a fictional character created by a cunning professional scammer named Alfred Ayivor from Ghana, west Africa.
Ghanaian organised crime authorities also allege that a 35-year-old Aussie woman named Rebecca Jade Silk from Sydney’s northern beaches assisted Ayivor in the plot by playing ‘Grace’ in person for the doctor in both Ghana and the United States.
‘I had my doubts about it all along,’ the American medical professional told Daily Mail Australia in a candid interview.
‘But she was very smooth, there were no mistakes.’
Ayivor, posing as ‘Grace’, texted the doctor daily for months in a bid to make him believe he had a future with the stunning Australian.
Rebecca Jade Silk, a swim school teacher from Sydney’s northern beaches, is allegedly at the centre of an elaborate romance scam that involved fake lawyers and police escorts
The doctor, pictured above, believed he had a future together with ‘Grace Erskine’ – but was sorely mistaken
Grace was supposedly an out-of-work hairdresser and mining heiress who was set to inherit her father’s goldmining wealth.
As time passed, Grace raised ‘business problems’, claiming the gold her father had left her was stuck in Ghana, and she was unable to recover it on her own.
The doctor smelled a rat and insisted that they meet in person.
‘She was supposed to meet me in New York for Christmas 2018,’ he explained.
‘When I went to collect her from the airport and she wasn’t there I got a frantic call from her “lawyer” to say she had been detained because she was trying to bring gold out.
‘They asked me to pay $20,000 bond and I said “no way, she can pay it herself”.’
The frustrated doctor, assuming it was likely part of a scam, thought that was the last time he would hear from Grace.
But then Ayivor reached out to Silk – in Australia – in order to help him close the deal, authorities allege.
Bombshell texts released in law enforcement documents, first reported by CBS News and seen by Daily Mail Australia, show alleged WhatsApp message conversations between Silk and Ayivor in February 2019.
There, Silk, who lives on the Northern Beaches with parents, asks the kingpin: ‘What’s my cut?’
‘How about $100,000,’ Ayivor replied.
‘$250,000,’ Silk said. ‘Without me everyone gets nothing.’
She then allegedly warned that she could bring the apparent scam down unless she was paid appropriately: ‘I could always call and say it was a scam.’
Rebecca Silk demanded more money for her part in the scam, according to text messages seen by Daily Mail Australia
In another set of messages with Ayivor, Silk describes her victim as ‘gross’
Rendezvous in Africa, then New York
With the deal seemingly struck, Silk jetted off to Ghana’s capital city, Accra, in March 2019 to meet with the doctor.
‘I went to meet her at Hotel Kempinski (in Accra) and she arrived with a police escort, I never could figure that out. Very impressive,’ he said.
‘Of course she wasn’t who I expected.’
Prior to enlisting the help of Silk, Ayivor had provided the doctor with photos of a porn star who looked entirely different to the Australian woman.
‘She told me she was very private and as we had never met she didn’t want to compromise herself,’ he remembered.
‘And as she was there, I chose to let that pass and see where it went.’
The pair enjoyed time by the pool and went out to dinner before Silk suddenly disappeared.
‘She left me a note at her apartment to say that her aunt had died and had to leave to arrange her funeral,’ he says.
Silk shares her lavish lifestyle with her Instagram followers and often shows off her travel
It’s not known how Rebecca allegedly became involved with African fraudsters but Ghanaian authorities obtained a series of Whatsapp messages between her and Alfred Ayivor. Alfred Ayivor, above, posed as a driver in Ghana to keep an eye on his alleged victim
The doctor first met with Silk, posing at Grace Erskin at the Hotel Kempinski in Accra, Ghana
Silk at the doctor’s house in New York cooking dinner for him. The pair met in person twice.
The pair met again in July of that year, when Silk stayed at the doctor’s New York home.
Between those meetings he had begun to transfer vast sums of money for his stake in the non-existent gold mine.
Candid social media photos show Silk staying at his home and cooking for the doctor – all while she showed off her international travel by posting photos of her lavish world trip to Instagram.
‘I was trying to set up the companies and the legal requirements for the gold to be released,’ he explained.
‘They had set up meetings with fake lawyers from the UK and it was a very complex process.’
But the alleged scam was shattered by Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) after his alarmed family called the FBI, resulting in an international investigation.
Alfred Ayivor was arrested, but died of an unknown illness before he faced trial.
It was through his seized devices that conversations between him and Silk were uncovered.
Silk has not been charged with any offences but remains a person of interest for Ghanaian police.
She did not respond when approached by Daily Mail Australia, although her boyfriend, Tendia Tudela, claimed that his girlfriend was not a willing participant in the scam and did not benefit financially from it.
‘They had something on her,’ Mr Tudela said.
‘She didn’t get that money.’
As for the doctor, he said his family had believed his supposed relationship was a scam from the start.
‘It was them who reported it all,’ he explained.
‘I’m not mad about it anymore, but I would like some answers and some accountability from (Silk).’
The Australian Federal Police declined to comment, saying they cannot comment on investigations conducted by Ghanaian authorities.
