Haunting truth about radio star Mel Greig’s date she met online

Media personality Mel Greig is sharing the stories of women who, like her, claim they have been financially scammed by a man from Sydney.

Media personality Mel Greig says “an avalanche of women” have come forward with concerning stories about a Sydney man after she went public with her own story of him scamming her out of $1000.

The 40-year-old said she first connected with James Yates when he added her on Facebook in 2017.

He travelled from Sydney to Wollongong to go on a date with her and ended up asking to stay with her as something had happened to his house.

Ms Greig said she also lent him $1000 because he claimed he lost his bank card. He then disappeared.

“Still six years later, once a month, someone will be tricked by James Yates. They’ll Google his name, the article will come up and they’ll make contact with me wanting to know ‘did he do this to you?’,” she told A Current Affair.

Mel Greig says she isn’t the only woman who claims to have been scammed by James Yates. Picture: A Current Affair

With their permission, Ms Greig is now sharing the stories of other women who claim to have been scammed by Mr Yates. But she says not all of those who have reached out to her want their stories shared publicly.

“The rest are terrified of him. They’re also embarrassed. People don’t understand how good he is at what he does,” she said.

Mr Yates has been accused of manipulating women into giving him money. Picture: Sunday Telegraph

When A Current Affair journalist Pippa Bradshaw confronted Mr Yates, he remained silent as she questioned him about the allegations.

Ms Greig has previously compared Mr Yates to the “Tinder Swindler” – Simon Leviev, another man who used Tinder to meet women and then con them out of millions of dollars.

Speaking on The Morning Show last year, Ms Greig said she knew in hindsight it was “stupid” to give Mr Yates $1000.

“I didn’t think anything of it (at the time) because just like the Tinder Swindler, I saw he had money so I lent him that,” she explained. “And a couple of days later he asked for another thousand and I just didn’t feel comfortable about that because he hadn’t paid back the first thousand.

“And then he just blocked me on everything and just disappeared and I felt so vulnerable and I felt so embarrassed that I didn’t see it for what it was.”