A fake website created for "Romano Telecoms"

When Pam met Romano on an online dating website, her life changed drastically. Only not in the way she'd hoped. 

What seemed like the beginnings of a dream relationship quickly turned into a nightmare, when over the course of a few months Pam lost over $100,000, and Romano disappeared forever.

It turns out "Romano" never existed. He was a work of fiction, perfectly crafted to attract and flatter. "Romano" had only one purpose: to scam vulnerable lonely hearts out of their money.

The tale of Pam and Romano is one we're seeing far too often. The lure of a perfect relationship, and the "hurdles" that require substantial amounts of cash to overcome.

Hear in Pam's own words how it all happened

• She thought he was a telecommunications consultant based in Perth but away working on a project in Kenya
  Part 1 - "It wasn't anything I'd planned on doing..."

• Pam was impressed by Romano’s romantic gestures
  Part 2 - "There were lengthy emails... long stemmed red roses"

• However, within a short period of time, Romano started asking Pam for money saying a fire had destroyed communications panels on his job site which he needed to replace
  Part 3 - "He had a balance that he required (to pay bills) and he asked me for it"

• When the requests for money continued, Pam became suspicious
  Part 4 - "The evening he was due to fly out, I received an SMS telling me that he'd been snatched by loan sharks"

• About $100,000 later, Pam is dealing with the devastating news that she’s been scammed
  Part 5 - "It's made things very awkward for me, as well as walking around with a very badly broken heart"

If Pam's story sounds familiar, or if you think this might be happening to you or someone close to you, we urge you to speak to the Project Sunbird team at WA ScamNet by calling 1300 30 40 54.

You can read all about Pam and "Romano" in this excerpt from Take5 magazine.