Conned of 7,000 euros on Facebook

Be careful who you are talking to online. That should be the motto for everyone who does not want to be scammed. An Austrian woman lost more than 7,000 euros after meeting someone on Facebook.

The 50 year old woman was tricked by her new Facebook friend who claimed he liked her. Now, Austrian police suspects the conman is from Nigeria. He lied the woman about his name, age and he even told her he was a Scottish Architect.

The relationship between the two developed over a few months and they even talked on the phone, but the woman never suspected she was conned. Eventually he made up a story and claimed he needed money for a series of personal issues. The woman believed the suspect and sent him, to Nigeria, in excess of 7,000 euros and it was the last she herd from her online lover.

Most likely, she will never recover the money sent to Nigeria. Although Facebook has some privacy protections measures and mandatory fields when a new account is created, the woman never asked the suspect for a video call. A police spokesman advised people to use extreme care when sharing personal data online so incidents like this could be avoided.