The Block’s alleged ‘conwoman’ Emese Fajk has fled Australia to ‘hide’ in the Portugese island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean where she calls herself Abigél and wears hair extensions
The accused ‘international conwoman’ who allegedly tried to cheat The Block with fake ANZ Bank slips is hiding out in disguise at an island paradise off the coast of Portugal.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal Emese Fajk, 28, jetted 18,000km overseas and adopted a new identity in the wake of her failed purchase of the Channel Nine show’s $4.2million winning home last year.
The Hungarian-born accused fraudster has assumed the name ‘Abigél Fuchs’ and is living in Funchal, the largest city of Madeira, a chain of islands in the north Atlantic Ocean.
Fajk appeared almost unrecognisable in pictures – sporting long blonde hair extensions – and has embraced a new coastal lifestyle, deep sea diving almost daily.
In an April 15 email to recent ex-boyfriend Steve Silva, obtained by the Mail, the accused Block scammer explained that she had to leave Australia ‘because it got to the point where I just couldn’t exist there anymore’.
Fajk confessed: ‘Yes, you’re right, I’m hiding. Not from the law … If I was in trouble with the law, I wouldn’t have been able to leave (Australia). I’m hiding from my problems and my life.’
However, a move halfway across the planet didn’t end Fajk’s trickery, it has been claimed.
Fajk, 28, left and right, has found a hobby in deep sea diving. On left she holds a diver’s log book and on right she takes a selfie in a wetsuit
So much for that: ‘Cyber security expert’ Emese Fajk placed the winning $4.2million bid on Jimmy and Tam’s carefully renovated Block house… but it never arrived
Allegations have emerged that Fajk pulled the same scam on her landlord in Madeira that she allegedly used on The Block’s producers last December.
She is accused of sending her Portugese landlord fake ‘proof of payment’ screenshots – just as she allegedly did to Channel Nine to ‘prove’ she could pay for Jimmy and Tam’s Palm Springs style Brighton home last year.
Boyfriend’s sinking feeling about new Madeira love
On February 18 – just days after publicly announcing she was ‘giving up’ on The Block house – Fajk left Australia for Europe.
Later that month, while setting up her new life in Madeira, she met cryptocurrency trader Steve Silva on Tinder.
‘(She said) she was working with Apple and the United Nations, the same crap,’ the ex-boyfriend in an interview.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’
‘She said she was a CEO and I was the first boyfriend she’d had who made more money than her.’
But their short-lived relationship took a turn last week after Fajk claimed that she’d gone into isolation because her landlord had registered a positive Covid test.
In WhatsApp messages, Fajk claimed she was going to the hospital to get tested. But a suspicious Mr Silva said he waited for Fajk to turn up there for ‘hours’ and she never showed.
As he waited, Mr Silva looked up the rental where Fajk was staying and found she had left a review with her normal picture, but an unfamiliar name: Emese. A Google search of Emese’s name led him to discover a disturbing trove of news stories, including a series published by Daily Mail Australia recently.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’ Mr Silva said.
Good place to escape to: The archipelago of Madeira (lower right, in green circle) is off the coast of Portugal and the north-western tip of Africa – far away from Australia
Some of the coastline of Madeira – a chain of islands in the North Atlantic – which Fajk is now calling home
ANZ Bank scam: A repeat offender?
Fajk, 28, has repeatedly been accused of using faked bank receipts
What Mr Silva discovered was that Fajk had repeatedly been accused of sending fake bank screenshots to acquaintances in the past.
Last December, she sent The Block’s producer Julian Cress screengrabs of her ANZ online bank account as proof that she had paid the $426,500 deposit and $4,072,951 final settlement for Jimmy and Tam’s Palm Springs style home.
The money famously never arrived, with Fajk blaming an unnamed lawyer for the failed payment and claiming she didn’t have enough time to get the deal done.
Mr Silva soon learned that Fajk was – at that exact moment – accused of doing the same thing with her landlord in Funchal.
Her apartment’s owner – who Daily Mail Australia agreed not to name – said Fajk recently sent him a screengrab showing an alleged $4,215 ANZ Bank transfer she had paid for rent.
But the money never came. All he has received is 200 Euro in cash.
‘She gave me 200 Euro only in cash. She said 200 more on Wednesday.’
Above is the ANZ Bank screenshot Emese Fajk sent to her landlord in Madeira, Portugal, recently, as proof of payment for the apartment she is living in
This is the ‘proof of payment’ Emese Fajk sent to Channel Nine last year as proof she had paid $4,072,951 to buy Jimmy and Tam’s property on The Block
After Fajk’s bizarre Block scandal was exposed in the Australian media, two former associates also came forward with similar allegations against Fajk.
A British ex-boyfriend said he received a payment slip showing she had transferred him 50,000 pounds from Coutts Bank.
That money never arrived and an independent analysis showed the bank statement had clearly been photoshopped. (Fajk said the man’s claims were ‘vexatious and false’).
A Hungarian graphic designer likewise received an allegedly fake ANZ Bank slip from Fajk for a $AUD1000 bill. It also never arrived, despite Fajk claiming in messages that she had called her bank and was told transfers were taking longer than usual.
Mr Silva, Fajk’s new boyfriend, was enraged when he confronted Fajk about her alleged deception in WhatsApp messages last week. He warned her that she was ‘in so much trouble’.
Fajk then blocked him, he said.
Date night! Fajk shares a meal with her ex-boyfriend in Madeira above. On right, she smiles for the camera during another meal
The ex-boyfriend then went to the local police station as she still had at least two of his possessions: a GoPro and a diving watch.
In WhatsApp messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Fajk warned her landlord that Mr Silva had brought police to her apartment.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’
Emese Fajk’s ex-boyfriend Steve Silva
‘Steve is here with the police … I spoke to a lawyer, they can’t enter the building but the police won’t talk to me.
‘What he is saying is all BS but I don’t want to see any doors kicked in’.
The landlord replied: ‘Scammer! …. You bailed without paying’.
On advice from police, Mr Silva last Friday emailed Fajk a formal demand asking she return the possessions to him by 6pm on Sunday or he would press matters further.
Fajk replied at 5.22pm that day: ‘I literally just saw your email. My lawyer will contact you tomorrow.’
No one has rang him since and he said the matter could take some time to resolve.
Fajk did not directly address several written questions posed to her by Daily Mail Australia, except to say she had nothing in her possessions that didn’t belong to her, deny she had ‘fled’ Australia and accuse her boyfriend of contacting the media to ‘pressure’ her.
She admitted ‘law enforcement and lawyers’ were involved in her current predicament.
As for Mr Silva, he said he is worried ‘this does not stop here – she will continue doing this in the next country that she goes.’
