The money was all my life savings and meant to pay for my retirement. I just feel so foolish, so humiliated

I lost my husband in 2005 and was left on my own, bringing up a son. As the years went on, my friends tried to convince me to give online dating a go.

I wasn’t that interested, but one day I overheard a woman in my hairdresser’s talking about how she’d met a lovely guy on a dating site. So I decided to sign up.

In December 2017, I set up a profile on Match.com and within a few days I got a message from a man called James Webb. He told me he was an American soldier in South Korea and his profile photograph showed him in an army uniform.

We emailed back and forth and he quickly asked me to move the chat to Google Hangouts, a messenger service on another site.

He seemed nice. He told me all about his life, saying he had a teenage daughter and worked as a truck driver in the army. He explained he was based in North Korea where he was regularly shot at by snipers and told me a roadside bomb had recently killed one of his comrades. It sounded terrifying.

He asked about my life too and I was flattered that someone like him would be so interested in me. I told him all about my son and my own job. We even chatted on webcam.

The image was grainy but I was convinced the man I spoke to was the same man from his photograph. He called me his “darling” and “love” and made me feel special.

After a few weeks he told me he hadn’t received a “care package”, a gift box soldiers get from home. I thought that was a shame so I posted off some sweets, toiletries and shortbread. The address was in Ghana and at the time it didn’t seem strange because he said it had to be sent via the United Nations.

Soon after I got an email from a Mr Godwin, from the UN, saying the package had been received.

A few days later James asked if

Carol, 54, a widow, thought she had met the man of her dreams when an American soldier messaged her on an internet dating site. He bombarded her with charming emails and calls so she was happy to help out the man who had made her feel special. Instead, it was the start of a scam that cost her £17,000. Now battling depression, the mum from Glasgow describes her ordeal.

I would accept a package for him – his personal belongings for safe keeping. I was reluctant. After all, I hardly knew him. But a week later I received an email from Amsterdam customs saying they had a package addressed to me and I had to pay £1,000 to release it.

It was a lot of money, but I wanted to help James out and he promised I’d get my money back. So I paid it.

That wasn’t the end of it. Soon I was getting emails from customs demanding more money. All the while this Mr Godwin was messaging me saying he was stranded with the package in Amsterdam, and James was messaging several times a day pleading with me to make sure his parcel was safe.

The emails became more threatening, demanding payment. I had recently received a small inheritance from the death of my dad so I used that, but the more I paid, the more they asked for.

I think the most I paid out was £9,500 in one go.

James assured me at every

stage I would get it all back once the package was in safe hands. Eventually a cheque for £10,000 did arrive, but when I took it to the bank in November, they said it was fake. That’s when I realised it was a scam – but by then I had paid out £17,000.

Looking back, I can’t believe I was so stupid. At one point, I barely had enough money for food because I was paying them all my wages. I thought I was going to lose my house as I was struggling to make the mortgage payments.

I tend to take people at face value. I never thought people could lie and cheat like that. I was so naive. I’ve reported it to the police and they are looking into it, but they can’t do anything about getting my money back.

It was all BACS payments into different sort codes and account numbers and the money was gone within a few hours. It’s hard because I don’t feel I will ever get any justice or closure.

That money was my savings. It was supposed to set me up for retirement. I feel ashamed and humiliated.

I’m suffering from depression and some days I don’t want to get out of bed. But If I can save one other woman from going through this, it might help.