According to a news report from CBS San Francisco, a 66-year-old woman in California has fallen victim to a scam perpetrated by a man she met on dating site ChristianMingle.com. The unnamed victim was conned out of a total of $500,000 over a number of months by a Nigerian conman pretending to be an upstart oil rig worker.

The conman used a picture of a male model and a false identity to lure the woman into an online relationship with him before asking for a staggering amount of money. Posing as an Irish oil rig worker named David Holmes, the scammer convinced his unnamed victim to send him $300,000 dollars in order to help him start a business of his own.

Trusting the man she had come to know one what she presumed was a safe dating website, the woman transferred the money to a Turkish bank, where an accomplice withdrew the funds. After sending a further $200,000 to her digital romancer, the authorities were finally alerted to the scam. Thanks to the quick intervention of the authorities, the woman was at least able to reclaim the $200,000 payment, though the scammer has yet to be apprehended.