Woman Forced Into Bankruptcy After Falling For 'Sweetheart Scam'

DENVER (CBS4) - She thought she'd met her soul mate online. Instead, he used her for money and she lost tens of thousands dollars.

It's not the first time the man has played on a woman's emotions. In November CBS4 reported on a similar story and now a person with the same profile on the Christian Mingle website has victimized someone else.

"His personality, he was friendly, he was charming, and so it just kind of got you hooked," said the woman, who asked not to be identified.

There were a lot of things about Alexander Bill that the woman says she fell for and what started out as a casual relationship soon evolved in to love letters, gifts and flattery.

"(He said) that I had the eyes of an angel," the woman said.

The letters told the story of a man who'd lost his wife, had a teenage daughter named Stacy, and worked as an engineer. But when business took him to China there was a sudden request -- $1,000 to be sent Western Union to his daughter.

"I told him I couldn't because I didn't know him and I said that was a lot of money," she said. "He would come back with, 'Oh, but I want to take care of you and you're my special lady and this is for my daughter, our daughter.' "

The requests became a weekly phone call and over the span of a few months she sent tens of thousands of dollars to Malaysia, always with a promise that it would be repaid.

"I wanted to believe him, I wanted to think that he cared about me and was coming to see me and was going to pay me this money back."

When she ran out of money, she asked a work colleague for a loan.

"And then I knew that it was not the fairytale story that I'd been told."

CBS4 called Alexander Bill at three different numbers, but each time there was only a strange voice message.

The victim is now trying to start her life over.

"Well I've had to sell my house and I'm in the process of filing for bankruptcy. So I've lost my life here in Colorado."

Report crimes to the Internet Crimes Complaint Center website. Cases are investigated by the FBI.

The Alexander Bill profile has been removed from the Christian Mingle website.

Because the victim willingly wired the money overseas, she will most likely never get any of it back. She hopes others will learn from her story.