This week, a fascinating story emerged about the victim of a dating scam, who after being swindled out of thousands of euros flew to Nigeria to meet the man who had taken her money.
Artist and teacher Maria Grette, 62, had met a man online she originally believed to be a 58-year-old Danish man named Johnny.
Having spoken for three months via messages and phone calls, Johnny agreed to visit Grette in Sweden after he and his son Nick had travelled to Nigeria for a job interview – the two even calling her from the airport.
However, things took a turn for the worse when Grette began receiving desperate emails from Johnny, who explained that the two had been involved in a mugging, and his son Nick had been shot in the head.
In an attempt to help, Grette willingly sent Johnny several thousand euros, only to later realise that the whole thing was a scam and 58-year-old Johnny was actually a 24-year-old Nigerian scammer.
Having ignored his messages for three weeks, Grette then received a call from Johnny, who confessed to the scam.
After this, the two continued to talk and Grette decided that she still wanted to meet him.
Unable to get him a visa to come to Sweden, Grette travelled to Nigeria where she met Johnny and other scammers like him – an experience that spurred her decision to try make a difference to people like Johnny who became involved in such scam gangs.
For the past six years, Grette has helped African artists visit numerous exhibitions, workshops, conferences and competitions and even helped them get grants for their work, all in the hope of improving these young people’s lives.
To find out more about Grette’s story and the work she is now doing, please click here.