Lisa Dwyer was so thrilled about the new man in her life, it was “almost overwhelming.”

“Oh, I met someone and he seems great,” Dwyer said this week, remembering back to April when she met him online.

“He wants to spend all this time with me, it’s very flattering.”

Then, a couple weeks and a few great dates later, the 37-year-old hairdresser was at the gym when she bumped into an acquaintance, Liz Charyna.

Charyna was distressed. “I need to warn you about this man I just met,” she said. Charyna had just been scammed out of $400.

The name of the guy was exactly the same as Dwyer’s new beau.

Dwyer admitted to knowing the man, but told Charyna she hadn’t given him money.

But she was lying. She immediately started to panic. “I felt sick to my stomach.”

Three days before her conversation with Charyna at the gym, Dwyer had given the man $2,700.

She was devastated, but soon realized she was far from alone.

Now, Dwyer wants to warn potential victims about a man who she says may have swindled hundreds of women like herself and Charyna.

Last month, Dwyer started a blog detailing her own experience with the alleged con man, and posting the histories of other victims who contact her to share their stories.

Since the blog went live, Dwyer has heard from six other women, who all reported similar experiences with a 43-year-old man named Wesley Devries. And she believes there are more victims, possibly hundreds.

Wesley Devries did not respond to repeated calls and emails for comment on this story.

The court records of Wesley John Devries paint a picture of a man who has been in and out of jail since the 1990s. He has faced dozens of charges, many for fraud and theft, but also for assault, uttering threats and obstructing a peace officer.

All of the alleged victims interviewed by The Province said that the man went by the name Wesley, or Wes, Devries. But court records show that he has also gone by aliases including Rodney Moore, Malcolm John Devries and McSweet Pea Devries.

Court records from April 2012 show that he was found guilty of fraud in Vancouver and sentenced to six months in jail and two years of probation, meaning he is still on probation. One of the 10 conditions of his current probation order is that he is not to possess any identification or financial documents that are not in his name.

Four women who allege they were the victims of Devries during the past two years said that he used the same method. He convinced them to deposit one of his personal cheques in their bank accounts. Then he got them to pay him the cash, or at least some of it, as they believed his money was in their account. Every time, the cheques bounced, leaving the women on the hook for thousands of dollars.

According to New Westminster court filings from 2004, a man with the same name, Wesley John Devries, had, by that point, amassed some 40 fraud, forgery and false-pretences-related convictions.

Many of those incidents involved the same cheque scam. Judge J.C. Challenger wrote in his decision, “Mr. Devries is a predator and a chronic recidivist. He has engaged in repeated, ongoing, premeditated criminality which commenced almost immediately after his release from custody for similar offences. He has been taking advantage of intimate relationships which are based on trust.”