Online relationship leads woman to suspect illegal activity

USA -- An online relationship went sour when a local woman in the 3300 block of Lotus began to suspect that the man she met online might be using her to conduct illegal activity, according to a police report filed Friday afternoon.

After losing her husband, the woman registered with Platinum.com, a site for senior citizens, in order to meet and make friends with others. After meeting a man who claimed to have lost his wife ten years earlier in a car crash she began communicating with him through e-mail and instant messages.

However, what started out as an innocent friendship soon turned creepy when the man started to "come on like gangbusters" according to the woman. He told her he wanted to marry her but had to take care of business first in Ghana, Africa. He then asked the woman to help him by shipping certain things to him in Africa. She agreed to do this but soon began receiving packages every day. The woman opened each package in order to make sure there wasn't anything illegal in them and kept all of the shipping information. Some of the items included three cell phones, two pairs of athletic shoes and several computer parts. When she kept receiving these packages daily and the man still refused to ever call her on the phone she began to suspect illegal activity and called the police to file a report.

She's agreed to help in any way needed. Police suspect credit card abuse is involved and are investigating.