Coast breakfast host Toni Street: ‘I was swindled out of $15,000’

Netflix’s Tinder Swindler has shed a spotlight on the dangers of scam artists – and it reminded one Kiwi radio host of her own experience.

Coast breakfast radio host Toni Street has revealed on-air she was once swindled out of $15,000.

She shared her experience with a scammer this morning, telling her co-hosts Sam Wallace and Jason Reeves that she was never getting the cash back.

“It’s not very nice being taken for a ride and it has happened to me,” she said.

Having recently moved house, she and her husband Matt France wanted to repaint and went with a painting company recommended by another mum at their children’s school.

“And we thought, you can’t go wrong with a recommendation,” she said.

“Painting started just as lockdown began so it was delayed – they got a few rooms inside done and they were meant to come back to do the outside.”

The painter doing the work was subcontracted to the person who took the bookings, she said.

But then things went quiet.

“We came out of lockdown and they were nowhere to be seen. Communication dried up, we were trying to call this guy off pseudo phones so he wouldn’t know it was us,” she joked.

“Then we got an email saying, ‘You’ve got me, I’ve gone bust, I’ve moved to Welly and I’m going to try to pay you guys back’.”

Street said they had paid $15,000 in…