His daughter, Karla, said her father had been buying vouchers from Carrefour, a supermarket, and sending the codes to the fraudster, who claimed to be short of money because Dion’s managers controlled her finances.

She said he had also shared photos, addresses and personal stories about his children and grandchildren with the scammers.

“On New Year’s Eve 2025, my father spent a whole day at the front door with his suitcases,” she told Belgian consumer radio programme Winwin.

“He was supposed to be taken to the airport by taxi. There, a private jet from Céline Dion would then take him to the US. He had paid a lot of money for that himself. Of course, no one showed up.”

Catherine van de Heyning, a prosecutor in Antwerp’s cybercrime unit, said love-scamming is growing by the day.

“Only the worst cases, in which the victim has lost their savings and sometimes assets, end up with me,” Ms Van de Heyning told Winwin. 

“Many cases go unreported because people are ashamed and sometimes the loss doesn’t outweigh that embarrassment.”