Impostor pretending to be Prince Carl Philip dupes victim out of thousand of pounds

An impostor pretended to be Sweden's Prince Carl Philip and managed to dupe an individual of thousands of pounds.

According to a report in Royal Central, the victim had a WhatsApp conversation with an impostor who they believed was Prince Carl Philip, the only son and the second of three children of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The fraudster used a fake passport to convince the victim and conned thousands of pounds from them.

The con artist apparently used photo manipulation to doctor the image in the passport. In his WhatsApp chats with the victim, the person called himself only "Prince Carl" instead of the royal's full name "Prince Carl Philip." After succeeding with the fraud, the imposter refused to return the money to the victim and blocked them on the messaging app.

The outlet reports that it alerted the Swedish Royal Court with screenshots of the conversation after which they have launched an investigation into the matter.

This is not the first time that an impostor has tried to make business off the name of the Swedish royal. In February last year, the Royal Court issued a press release to warn people about a false website in the name of the prince asking for donations.

"A website claiming to represent Prince Carl Philip is sending out invitations to Royal events as well as asking recipients for financial donations. The Royal Court of Sweden would like to inform that the website is false and does not represent His Royal Highness nor The Prince Couple's Foundation. The Royal Court of Sweden has reported the website to the Swedish Police Authority," the press release read.

On the personal front, the Prince and his wife Princess Sofia are expecting their third child soon. The royal couple, who have been married for over five years, are already parents to two sons- Prince Alexander, four, and Prince Gabriel, three.

The "new little member" of the family is due in March or April this year. The pregnancy was announced in December last year, just days after the couple recovered from COVID-19.

The royal tot will be seventh in the Swedish line of succession, taking over the position from their aunt, Princess Madeleine. The new prince or princess will also be the first of King Carl XVI Gustaf's grandchildren to be born without an HRH title, as the monarch announced in October 2019 that the title will henceforth only go to the children of Crown Princess Victoria, as they are directly in line to the Swedish throne.