An unlucky British man has been left heartbroken and out of pocket after being caught up in an internet scam.
Colin Orr, 40, had sent money to his Ukrainian internet girlfriend ahead of her flying to the UK to meet him, but when she failed to arrive at the airport his suspicions were raised.
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The couple met on an internet site for penpals and their romance quickly blossomed.
Within a month, the woman, who claimed her name was Olga Marchenko, had told Colin that she loved him and wanted to move to Edinburgh to be with him.
However, after forking out money for flights, he was left humiliated when her and her daughter failed to show up at the airport to meet him.
Credit: Victoria Stewart
Now the dad-of-one is £1,600 out of pocket after saving up months for the tickets.
He was initially so confused that he filed a missing person report when they failed to materialise.
Now Colin wants Action Fraud - the UK's national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre - to bring charges against the woman.
He told The Mirror: "It all started a bit bizarrely really. I'm not someone that does the internet thing but I got a laptop when I was starting my own business and thought I'd join the internet age.
"I went on this website called Interpals which is a penpal site to meet people from all over the world and I just thought I'd try being sociable for a change.
"I wasn't going on a dating site or anything, it was just out of curiosity. Olga was the first person I spoke to on it.
"She asked if I would like to exchange email addresses to write to each other, so I said yes and it went from there.
"We were writing to each other every day and I liked it. She told me that she was a widow and her husband had died in the fighting out there because Lugansk is right on the frontline."
He added: "She asked me for help financially and I said yes. I thought if I didn't take a chance on her, I might be missing out on something that could have been amazing.
Credit: Victoria Stewart
"I felt comfortable writing and reading her letters and every time my phone beeped with an email and it was from her, I was over the moon.
"We exchanged over 800 emails plus thousands of messages on Whatsapp. We had phone calls, she sent me pictures.
"There were real conversations about our lives. It was never ever sleazy."
However, Colin was left heartbroken when Olga failed to turn up.
He said: "Olga had emailed saying she would be wearing a bright pink t-shirt and her daughter would be wearing a red cap so I would recognise them when I saw them. Everything felt real and believable."
"Why would she take my money? I'm just a working-class man and she knew that.
Credit: Victoria Stewart
"She knew about how hard I was working and that I'd sold my guitar and laptop for her when she needed money.
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"She must have had a plan. She spoke an awful lot about marriage when we were writing to each other and about having children.
"Initially, I took it all with a pinch of salt. I might have been naive but it felt like a relationship and I was taking a chance.
"She is definitely who she says she is because there is a money trail through Western Union that shows it was picked up in Lugansk by an Olga Marchenko.
"The police said the passports for her and her daughter were real as well so I wasn't really catfished. I just don't want her to now do the same thing to someone else."
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: "Police in Edinburgh were called to an address in Oxgangs following a report of concern for a 32-year-old woman.
"The matter was reported to police on Thursday, July 6. Officers conducted inquires and it was quickly established that the woman was living outside UK.
"Officers have explained the circumstances to the complainer and appropriate advice has been given."
Source: The Mirror
Featured Image Credit: Victoria Stewart