Austrian man loses £23,000 to ‘fake Prince Harry’

An elaborate scam involving someone pretending to be Prince Harry has resulted in an Austrian man being more than £23,000 out of pocket.

The man responded to a Facebook post in which someone posing as Prince Harry revealed they were looking for a contractor to complete work at Buckingham Palace.

In particular, he said he was hoping to hire someone to renovate the parquet floors at the royal home in central London – an opportunity that clearly appealed to the Austrian tradesman.

He immediately got in touch with the fake Prince Harry online and said he would be able to complete the project. He was then asked to transfer €27,500 (£23,000) to several bank accounts as part of the scheme, as it was essential he had to start trading as a British business.

The tradesman became suspicious when he had not heard back from the pretend royal for several days. He contacted police last week and reported the 'Prince Harry' Facebook account and revealed his story.

Unfortunately for him, police in Burgenland have already warned that he is extremely unlikely to get his money back, meaning he will have lost a huge sum on the hoax.

Several transactions were made in which the Austrian man sent money to the conman. These included a security deposit of £18,000, which came after an initial sum of £2,000 and prior to a closing payment of £2,500.

Prince Harry seems to be a favourite among tricksters, as his identity was also stolen in 2010 when a fraudster managed to persuade at least 20 African women to part with money for a charity that aimed to help orphans.

However, in reality, they were transferring money through to a fake account located in west Africa.