{"id":259967,"date":"2016-10-20T09:39:02","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T09:39:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=259967"},"modified":"2016-10-20T09:39:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-20T09:39:02","slug":"i-went-to-nigeria-to-meet-the-man-who-scammed-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/10\/i-went-to-nigeria-to-meet-the-man-who-scammed-me\/","title":{"rendered":"I went to Nigeria to meet the man who scammed me"},"content":{"rendered":"
An internet romance scam took an unexpected turn, writes Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani.<\/p>\n
When Maria Grette first discovered that the 58-year-old Danish man with whom she had fallen in love was actually a 24-year-old Nigerian 419 internet scammer, the 62-year-old Swede was distraught. But, soon, her feelings changed.<\/p>\n
“The most terrible thing was not that he had cheated me, but that he had lost his innocence,” she said.<\/p>\n
She became consumed with what she describes as “a profound need to make a difference to the people of Nigeria”.<\/p>\n
Ms Grette’s relationship with Johnny (not his real name) began after an evening of fun and games with her girlfriends, during which they playfully created a profile for her on an online dating website. A few years before, she had gone through a traumatic divorce, and her friends teased her about finally starting a new relationship.<\/p>\n
But when the fun of creating her profile was over, Ms Grette, who works as an arts teacher, painter and arts therapist, didn’t give much further thought to the website.<\/p>\n
“I received messages telling me that people had contacted me, but I never looked at them,” she said.<\/p>\n
Then, one day, she did.<\/p>\n
“I still don’t know why,” she said. “It was like a sudden impulse happening before I could stop it.”<\/p>\n
That particular message was from a man who described himself as a Dane raised in South Carolina, USA; a civil engineer working on a contract in England; a widower with a son in a Manchester university.<\/p>\n
“I was caught up by the atmosphere and by something in his words,” she said.<\/p>\n