'My sister thought she was dating a millionaire... it was all a lie'

Alice* was 81 years old when she fell for someone she met while playing an online word game. The pensioner seemed to have a lot in common with her mystery man.

He told her he was a millionaire in the United States, and more than 20 years her junior. After hitting it off, he asked Alice to move the chat to another online platform.

There, the conversations became more intense. But it was also the moment that requests for money began.

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Over the course of 18 months, Alice paid out more than £20,000 to someone she thought she could trust. Alice believed he was 'giving her a second chance at love'.

In reality, she was being scammed. Her brother David*, from Oldham, said: "My sister sent over £20,000 to scammers over 18 months, and I think if my wife and I hadn’t been there to help her, eventually they would have cleaned her out.

"The scammers are very clever; they target things like online scrabble because they know this is a place where they’ll find older women with a bit of money. And it always goes the same way, where the scammer starts off by building a relationship and then claims they haven’t got access to their bank card and need a bit of money and will pay you back.

“My sister believed she was dating a 60-year-old millionaire in the United States who was promising to come over and look after her and give her a second chance at love. It was all a lie.”

The con artist described himself as a Christian, a widower and a father - all traits that Alice, now 83, shared. He seemed to understand her, seemed interested in her life, and Alice thought she was in love.

"We knew Alice’s behaviour had changed but we found out something was seriously wrong when she