Clueless American Duped by Imaginary Online Girlfriend

This news item from the Philippine Star took my attention.

I tells a sad story of a freelance journalist from the U.S. who got into an "online affair" with a nursing student from Mandaue, Cebu City.  They "met" on an online chatroom and there their so-called relationship blossomed.  Pictures of the nursing student, identified by the victim as "Trisha de la Torre", were sent and they exchanged emails and online chats.  The American Journalist was also sending money to "Trisha" regularly.

After a year and half into the "relationship", Trisha agreed to meet up with him and that's when he discovered that there's no one by the name of "Trisha de la Torre" in the place where she was suppose to live.  Now the American journalist is preparing to go back to the U.S. to nurse his broken heart (and empty wallet).

In the internet, paranoia is a virtue.

technorati tags:online-scam, virtual-girlfriend

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