My sister spent a long time living on her own and joined up to several online social/dating sites. It really cheered her up, even to chat online every evening for a few hours did her mood a lot of good. She was hopeful she'd meet Mr Right this way.

She rang me one evening to tell me she was really falling for a guy she had been chatting to for a couple of months. Apparently he was ten years younger than her and extremely good looking. He was an Amercian, and had a son. His parents were killed in a car crash and his ex-wife had run off with another man. He was paying a nanny to look after the little boy and had a high powered travelling business job.

My first instinct was that he sounded too good to be true. I decided to go round to see my sister and she went online to show me his photo. It was so not him. I just knew it instantly. It was a hunky film star image!

I told her my concerns and she laughed at me saying he had already told her he was going to travel over to the UK to see her soon.

A couple of weeks later she phoned me and told me it was over. This man had rung her mobile and told her he was ringing from Brazil where he had gone on "business". Apparently he had taken his son with him and his son developed a strange and rare kidney problem. The little boy needed immediate surgery and treatment. He said he was having difficulty accessing his money to pay for it all, and could she lend him $5000 until he got back to the US. Hmm, I don't think so.

Please be careful online. There are many con men around.