When Jane, 56, met Michael, 28, while on holiday in The Gambia, she thought it was true love. But what happened next left her sister fearing she would take her own life...



Jane, from Rothwell, fell for Nigerian Michael, a bartender, in 2005

She married him and then he decided he wanted to live in England

Some 1,000 Brits are victims of dating scams each year, says ONS

Three other women tell their stories of holiday dating scams



Jane Cole, 56, knew that The Gambia in Western Africa had a reputation for being a hotbed of holiday romances between young local men and oilder British women.



But when she decided to take a break there with her friend Vanessa in 2005, she never thought she'd find herself caught up in one.



'I'm quite worldly-wise,' said Jane, from Rothwell, who considered herself too sensible to get embroiled with a younger man.

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Holiday love turned sour: Michael wooed Jane when she visited The Gambia on holiday with a friend while he was working in a local bar, but after they married she realised he wasn't quite the person she thought

But then she met Michael, a 28-year-old Nigerian bartender, and his charming, attentive nature drew her in immediately.

Michael quickly made it clear he wanted more than just a one-night stand while she was on holiday in the country. He wanted a relationship. 'I was completely sucked in,' said Jane.

When Michael proposed, Jane decided to keep it a secret from her younger sister Tracy, knowing she would disapprove. Instead, she flew to The Gambia and married him, leaving Tracy to call her a fool.

Quickly, Jane began to see that she might have been right.

Michael said he wanted to move into Jane's house with her in the UK, even though she had set her heart on a new life in The Gambia, as they had discussed. Nonetheless, she loved him, so she agreed.

But as soon as the couple arrived in the UK, Jane began to question Michael's loyalty, especially when he began disappearing for long periods.

After calling a number that appeared frequently on his phone bill, she reached a woman with whom Michael had been having a relationship for six years.

'When I confronted Michael he just admitted it and laughed. "People laugh when they see us together," he said. I was devastated. My self-confidence sunk to an all-time low. He had drained me of everything, both financially and emotionally.'



Around 1,000 British people are victims of dating scams each year, according to the Office of National Statistics

'I blamed myself for being foolish and falling for it. I'm supposed to be intelligent but I never had an inkling.

'I believed everything he said. And if he had told me the woman was just a friend, I'd still have believed him.'

Tracy admits worrying that her sister might take her own life, because Michael had robbed her of everything.

But Jane is not alone when it comes to confident tricksters scamming women in matters of the heart on holiday.

Around 1,000 British people are victims of dating scams each year, according to the Office of National Statistics.

Love at first sight? When Jeanette, from Whitby, met Rudy Sloot while on holiday in Sorrento, she was utterly charmed, but when he came to live with her in Yorkshire she saw his true colours

In 2004, a smooth-talking gentleman named Rudi Sloot began speaking to widow Jeanette Styles, 56, from Whitby, while in Sorrento, Italy.



Handsome and polite, he told her he worked as an undercover agent in the White House.



'I fell for him. He seemed lovely. He came to see me in England and never left. It felt like we'd been together for years,' said Jeanette.

'I felt emotionally betrayed. It was a lot to deal with and I get quite emotional when I think about it. I don't think I'll ever get over it'

But before she knew it, Rudi was talking her into buying him £17,000 cars and loaning him money, always promising to pay her back but never doing it.

One night, when he became aggressive, she called the police. They came and arrested him and revealed he was a wanted man, on the run from Interpol for committing fraud and theft all over the world.

'I felt emotionally betrayed,' said Jeanette. 'It was a lot to deal with and I get quite emotional when I think about it. I don't think I'll ever get over it.'

Jeanette is now rebuilding her life with her new partner Adrian, a local chef, and Rudy is in jail, but she has been left with the scars of her ordeal with the man who called himself 'Rudi Sloot'.



Young love? Alanah Longshore, 19, from Sterling in Scotland, was just 16 when she began an internet relationship with a man named Jan who lived in Marmaris, Turkey

Alanah Longshore, 19, from Sterling in Scotland, was just 16 when she began an internet relationship with a man named Jan who lived in Marmaris, Turkey, a resort in which she often holidayed with her family.



The pair began chatting in a forum dedicated to the destination, and finally met in 2010, when she returned with her mother and a family friend.

Despite warnings from family and friends, Alanah returned to Marmaris in 2011, but her relationship with Jan soon soured

As soon as she saw him Alanah knew he was the one. 'I felt my heart melt. He was perfect,' she said.



They grew close immediately, and when she flew back to Scotland she told her mother she had decided to emigrate to Turkey to live their with her new boyfriend.



Despite warnings from family and friends, Alanah returned to Marmaris in 2011, but her relationship with Jan soon soured, with money running out and Jan spending more time out of the house, leading Alanah to believe he was having an affair.



When he became physically violent towards her Alanah fled home, where she discovered Jan was a serial philanderer, moving from British woman to British woman, and frequently getting them - Alanah included - pregnant.

Abusive correspondence followed, including one message in which Jan said he wished that she and their unborn baby die in childbirth, and now Alanah is now seeking legal advice to ensure her young son is safe from his father, who has threatened to bring him back to Turkey.

Love in a warm climate: Valerie met Marco in 1999 in Turkey, but after three years with him she discovered he had fathered a child with another woman during their relationship

Valerie Bamping, 60, a sales manager from Newark, says her 'holiday love rat', also from Marmaris, cheated her out of some £42,000.

Ergan, who called himself Marco, was a jeweller who began pursuing Valerie in 1999, when she was holidaying in Turkey alone.

He took her out for meals, paid her lots of attention, and gave her jewellery he told her he had made himself.

Over three years she gave him plenty of money and bought him a motorbike, always giving one excuse or another about why he couldn't pay her back just yet.

She became disillusioned with him and broke up the relationship, only to discover he had fathered a child with his common law Turkish wife while they had been together, and that he had, in total, nine children with three different women.

'I used to be so trusting,' she said. 'Now I'm much more sceptical about everything.'

