"Financial problems"

Woman transferred tens of thousands of euros to love swindler

The Tyrolean woman was the victim of a "love scam".(Bild: Kanchanit)

As we all know, love is often blind - or, as in this case, gullible: a 70-year-old woman from Innsbruck allowed herself to be ripped off by an unscrupulous love swindler on the internet. The stranger told the senior citizen brazen lies and tricked her into transferring tens of thousands of euros.

There are plenty of love scams on the web: It usually starts with a harmless chat - gradually trust is built up and suddenly there is talk of love or even a relationship or marriage. This is probably what happened to the 70-year-old woman from Innsbruck.

"I'm in love with you"
In spring last year, the senior citizen met a supposed man on a social media platform. The stranger befriended the woman and at some point pretended to be in love with her.

High five-figure sum lost
"In the end, the victim was tricked into making several money transactions to different accounts because the supposed lover had financial problems," said the investigators, describing the brazen scam. All in all, the 70-year-old woman transferred a high five-digit euro amount.

The victim only reported the scam to the police when the sums of money demanded got higher and higher.