Man Surprised to Find that Online Girlfriend Asking Him for Money Is Not Real

There is a sucker born every minute. On the Internet, multiply that by 200,000, and you'll get the amount of money that a hapless 48-year-old man from the Chicago suburb of Naperville sent his supposed "online girlfriend" whom he'd actually never met. But he'd seen her Florida driver's license, or so he thought! Plus, when a person asks you to wire $200,000 to bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England, and the U.S....what's not to trust?

The two "dated" for two and a half highly successful "long-distance" years, until the man called the cops to help him rescue his lady from a supposed kidnapping in London and was informed, to his disbelief, that the girlfriend had not only not been kidnapped, but actually didn't exist at all.

There are a lot of lessons here, among them: If you're scamming a guy for $200,000, don't pretend to get kidnapped lest he call the cops. Unless you're actually trying to break up with him. On the other side of the coin, never trust a person with a Florida I.D. But you know who you can trust? A body pillow.

In related news, WikiHow is proving especially handy today. Here's "How to Create a Fake Boyfriend or Girlfriend." Note, names like Amanda Hugginkiss or Justin Time are not advisable, for some reason.

Naperville man sends $200K to fake online girlfriend [Chicago Tribune]