Aussie police stop a woman from getting swindle by online scammer

The 73-year-old Melbourne woman, identified only by her first name of Isabell, was about to get on a flight to Ghana on Wednesday when her daughter and a Western Australia fraud squad detective finally convinced her to cancel her trip during a stopover in Perth.

The daughter, Ann, 48, told the Herald Sun newspaper she feared her mother would have been kidnapped and held for ransom, or worse.

Earlier this year a 67-year-old pensioner from Perth was found dead in Johannesburg, South Africa, after flying over to meet another romance fraudster.

Isabell, a property owner, wired tens of thousands of dollars to someone she thought was a widowed American who claimed to run a business but who needed money to set up an orphanage.

In reality, the man Isabell was emailing and speaking to over the phone on a daily basis was a 26-year-old African with no such charitable intentions, police here said.

Ann said her mother fell for his relentless promises of love and marriage.

"I've never felt anyone has ever loved me as much as this person," Isabell told her daughter.