Internet romances begin and end every day. The Internet has become the primary means of interaction for many people. While some people meet in smoky bars and parties, the vast majority meet at work or at school. When you think about the Internet, however, it offers an environment not entirely dissimilar to work or school. People can spend time getting to know each other. They can interact with large numbers of people in chat rooms. There is one enormous difference between the Internet and real life and that is the fact that in many times, the person that you are talking to or getting to know is just words on a page. It is a prime ground for tricksters and they do abound. Just ask Des Gregor, 56, from South Australia. Gregor is a farmer for whom online romance could well have been fatal.

Gregor met a “woman” called Natacha from Mali online. Presumably things went well because he flew to Mali to meet her and pick up $100,000 worth of gold bars as dowry (perhaps he should have been suspicious then and there). Of course when he arrived in Mali there was no Natacha, a car drove him to a house full of armed men who beat him with machetes and told him that his limbs would be hacked off unless a $100,000 ransom was paid by his family. He was bound and kept hostage for 12 days.

Gregor got out and it did not cost his family $100,000. He did suffer a lot of pain, but he managed to keep his limbs. His kidnappers were tricked by the Australian Federal Police. The AFP managed to convince the kidnappers that they would be able would be able to pick up the ransom money from the Canadian embassy. Gregor entered the embassy and was free of the kidnappers. What happened to the kidnappers after that remains a mystery.

Source: Reuters
Image: Daily Mail

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