Love scam victim tells of kidnap

AN AUSTRALIAN farmer held hostage in Mali for 12 days by a gang of men posing as an online love interest has urged others to be careful when seeking romance on the internet.

Des Gregor, 56, travelled to the landlocked African nation last month to meet his supposed bride, Natacha, whom he had met on the internet, and collect a dowry of gold bars worth 100,000 Australian dollars (€61,000).

But when he arrived, the wheat and sheep farmer was kidnapped by a gang of armed bandits who bound him, beat him with a machete and stole his cash and credit cards.

Gregor, who returned to his home state of South Australia with a police escort yesterday, said the men told him they would hack his limbs off with a machete unless he paid them the dowry amount in ransom.

But the scam was stopped when Australian and Malian police, alerted by Gregor’s family in Australia, tricked the kidnappers into taking Gregor to the Canadian Embassy to collect the ransom money.

Gregor said he had learned his lesson and urged others to be careful when looking for love on the net.

“Just be careful — make sure you check everything out 100%,” he warned.

Australian Federal Police said that Gregor’s case was an “extreme example” of what could happen to people who succumb to internet scams.