A British guy was left heartbroken and out of pocket after his ‘Ukrainian Internet girlfriend’ failed to show up at the airport after duping him out of £1,600.
Colin Orr, 40, was left ‘humiliated’ after ‘Internet girlfriend’ Olga Marchenko failed to show up.
The chef from Edinburgh had met Olga on an online website for penpals, and within a month she told him she loved him and that she wanted to move to Edinburgh.
When Colin sent her the money and paid for their flights, he believed he was helping Olga and her young daughter in Lugansk, Ukraine.
Speaking to UNILAD, Colin said:
I never doubted the authenticity as it wasn’t a dating site. I believed I had met a nice person looking for happiness and a nice life.
It was difficult but I knew there was always the chance that it could go that way. But I believed her and it was very convincing. But it did hurt.
If I could speak to her I would ask ‘why me’. Of all the millions of people online why pick a working class man who isn’t rich to steal from and do it over six months. As for advice I would say I now know it can happen on any site. So be careful.
Well I just get on with things. I need an operation before I’m allowed to go back to work for a bi-lateral hernia, which I got working like crazy to pay for her trip. But I have to just move on.
I don’t know if maybe I was just in love with the idea of being in love or what because when you can’t close a chapter without knowing how it ends you’re in limbo. I think I maybe was though. Either way I cared for her.
The father of one even reported Olga as missing when she did not turn up to the airport, fearing something bad may have happened, but the police confirmed she had been found living outside of the UK.
Olga even went to the length of describing what she and her daughter were wearing to the airport so he could find them easily.
Speaking to the Daily Record, Colin said:
It all started a bit bizarrely really. I’m not someone that does the internet thing but I got a laptop when I was starting my own business and thought I’d join the internet age.
I went on this website called Interpals which is a penpal site to meet people from all over the world and I just thought I’d try being sociable for a change.
I wasn’t going on a dating site or anything, it was just out of curiosity. Olga was the first person I spoke to on it.
Colin and Olga exchanged over 800 emails, thousands of WhatsApp messages, phone calls, and photos, saying it was very ‘real’ and ‘never ever sleazy’.
Colin claims that he was not catfished because the police have confirmed the passports for her and her daughter were real, and there is a money trail through Western Union that shows the money was picked up in Lugansk by an Olga Marchenko.
After being ripped off by the con artist, Colin wants Action Fraud (the UK’s national fraud and cyber-crime reporting centre) to bring charges against Olga and hopes his story can serve as an example to others.
