Deceitful online relationships are not uncommon, but getting swindled out of $100,000 because of one definitely is.
This is what happened to Patricia Meister, a 64-year-old woman from Queensland, United Kingdom, who fell in love with a man she had never met before.
After a handsome middle-aged businessman named Carlos sent her a request on Facebook back in 2015, she didnโt see the harm in accepting it. She was feeling alone and isolated at the time, had been single for quite a bit, and had never used a dating website before.
โWe started chatting. He was charming, smart, and educated. He was very good with English, and he was very romantic. I was very much in love with him at one stage.โ
Carlos told her he was of Italian and Scottish descent and was based in Brisbane. They chatted almost every day, and he would share almost every aspect of his life with Meister.
After a while of chatting online, they started having phone conversations.
Meister recalled hearing his voice for the first time on the phone:
โWhen I first spoke to him, I heard his voice, but he had a different accent to what Iโd expected. I remember thinking, โWhat is that accent?โ I couldnโt place his accent. I wasnโt familiar with his accent at the time, but thinking about it now, he was definitely Africanโฆ He was Nigerian.โ
Although she had a few doubts about him, she continued to talk to him over the phone.
Approximately eight weeks after starting their first phone conversation, Carlos asked Meister if she could lend him $600 because his credit card was not working properly in Malaysia, where he supposedly was for work. She didnโt feel quite right about it but thought to herself that $600 was not a big sum to lose. She didnโt see it as a huge request, so she transferred him the money.
โA part of me thought it was wrong, so I questioned him, saying โYouโre a businessman, your credit card should workโฆโ His story didnโt add up.โ
But this wasnโt the end of his requests.
His requests for money started to multiply, and every time, Carlos would have a different excuse. Eventually, Meister sent him $7,000 because his goods were being held up by Malaysian customs on his way home to Brisbane.
Meister believed his story because he was able to back up all of his statements with documents and always had a lawyer on hand. After the $7,000 she initially sent him, something went wrong and he needed another $7,000. When he tried to pay her back, Carlos told Meister that his bank wasnโt able to complete such a large international transfer and that he therefore organized for a courier to deliver the money in cash. She was given a tracking sheet, where she was able to keep an eye on the movement of the parcel.
Unfortunately, the parcel was โheld upโ in Kuala Lumpur. According to the tracking sheet, a fee of $25,000 had to be paid to allow for the cash to leave the country. Since Carlos had put Meisterโs business address on the sheet, Meister was worried she would get in trouble, so she paid the money.
When the parcel arrived in Melbourne, Meister was required to pay yet another fee.
โI pretty much paid it. Money was getting hard to find. He pretty much picked up the last amount of my money.โ
Soon enough, Meister would realize what she had gotten herself into.
She received a phone call on the day her package was supposed to arrive.
โI got a phone call from someone saying Carlos and his lawyer had been in a serious car accident so they needed money for medical expenses. My stomach dropped to my shoes. I knew at that point, Iโd been scammed.โ
Meister stopped talking to him, but after a week, he tried to have her pay for his medical expenses. Meister refused to pay, and he texted her saying that it had been a terrible misunderstanding.
โYouโre a scammer,โ she messaged back.
He ended the conversation by telling her, โCatch me if you can, my dear.โ The fraudster has now been identified as being from Nigeria.
Today, Meister has lost over $100,000. Although she knows she wonโt make that money back, she hopes she can raise awareness about the dangers of online dating and scammers.
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