A New Westminster woman is out more than $6,000 after falling victim to an online romance scam.
The New Westminster woman started a profile on an online dating site and while accessing the site, she was messaged by another member who claimed to hold the rank of major in the U.S. Army and was currently deployed in Afghanistan.
After communicating for a week, the man asked the woman to send him money via Western Union so that he could visit her in Canada during his deployment leave and he would pay her back later. The woman filled out a leave request form, providing her personal information and stating she was the man's fiance.
For the next month, the woman sent seven Western Union transactions to Kentucky, Georgia and Nigeria. None of the names she was advised to send the money to was the name of the man. She believed them all to be part of the U.S. military.
The woman became suspicious that she may have been the victim of fraud when she saw a newspaper article regarding the top 10 scams of 2012. She soon realized she had been victimized by Nigerian scam artists and will probably never recover her money.
The New Westminster Police Department urges residents to be very cautious with their money and personal information, particularly through online interaction. To obtain further information on this and other types of scams, please go to www.antifraudcentre.ca.
www.twitter.com/AlfieLau
