A 64-year-old Queensland woman is urging single people to learn from her mistakes after she was swindled out of $100,000 thanks to a sophisticated online scammer.

In 2015, Patricia Meister received a Facebook friend request from a handsome, middle-aged Italian businessman named Carlos. She was instantly charmed and the two quickly struck up a relationship.

“I’d never been on dating websites, and I only used Facebook for business,” she told Daily Mail Australia. “So when I got the friend request, I thought it couldn't do any harm, can it?”

She added, “I guess at the time, I was going through a period in my life where I felt isolated. I’d been single for a while and I’d never been on dating sites. We started chatting. He was charming, smart and educated. He was very good with English and he was very romantic. I was very much in love with him at one stage.”

Carlos, who claimed he was living and working as an interior designer in Brisbane, told Patricia he was of Italian and Scottish heritage.

Their romance continued to blossom and they finally decided to start talking over the phone. “When I first spoke to him, I heard his voice but he had a different accent to what I’d expected,” Patricia recalled.

“I remember thinking, ‘What is that accent?’ I wasn’t familiar with his accent at the time, but thinking about it now, he was definitely African... He was Nigerian.”

Despite her initial doubts, Patricia was too deeply in love to identify the red flags. Eight weeks into their relationship, however, “Carlos” asked to borrow $600 because his credit card wouldn’t work while in Malaysia for his job.

“It didn’t feel right but I thought, ‘Well, it’s not a huge amount of money to lose.’ It wasn’t a huge request so I did a wire transfer to him. A part of me thought it was wrong so I questioned him, saying, ‘You’re a businessman, your credit card should work...’ His story didn’t add up.”

Then, while trying to return home to Brisbane, “Carlos” claimed his goods had been held up in Malaysian customs.” The first amount I sent him was $7,000,” Patricia explained. “When he went to get the money, he told me he needed another $7,000.”

She continued, “Everything he said was backed up by ‘documents’ – and there was always a lawyer in the background when we spoke over the phone. When he tried to pay me back, he said his bank couldn't do the large international transfer so he arranged for a courier to deliver the cash instead.”

Patricia continued to send “Carlos” money until his goods had finally been released. But the “fees” didn’t stop there. She was conned out of a total of $100,000.

“I got a phone call from someone saying Carlos and his lawyer had been in a serious car accident so they needed money for medical expenses. My stomach dropped to my shoes. I knew at that point, I’d been scammed.”

The police could do nothing for her. Now, she’s joined a support group for women in similar situations, and for her, the scariest part was that she never thought she’d become one of “those women”.

“I used to hear about the TV stars who were scammed and remembered thinking, ‘How can you send money to someone like that?’” she recalled.

“I think I was sort of aware but I had no idea these things could be so complex or how well developed they are. It’s a worldwide business, it’s very difficult to catch them because they’re sitting behind a computer.

“People think you’re stupid but they're not walking in our shoes. It’s not a matter of being stupid. Even the most intelligent, educated women are getting scammed.

“I know I’ll never get my money back but all you can do is raise awareness. There’s a lot of lonely people out there, the dating websites are riddled with scammers.”

Image credit: Patricia Meister.