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Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
It evidently brought sorrow to the women - and allegedly left havoc on their finances.
The Bavarian police have now arrested a fraudster who is said to have faked women love and cheated them out of money.
As the Coburg police and the federal police announced, the 55-year-old was caught at Erfurt main station in mid-April.
He was about to get into the vehicle of another alleged victim when the officers grabbed it, it said.
Since the 55-year-old was wanted with several arrest warrants, he was arrested and taken to a correctional facility.
He now has to answer for a wide variety of crimes, including driving without a license and computer fraud.
The accused apparently dated women online - despite the ban
In so-called romance scamming, the perpetrators fake love for their victims and then use the trust that has built up to get money.
According to the police, the 55-year-old repeatedly made contact with women via online dating portals, with whom he initially had an alleged relationship, despite a legal ban.
Over time, according to investigators, he isolated his victims from acquaintances and relatives and finally drove them out of large sums of money in the mid four-digit euro range.
With this scam, the man is said to have been particularly active in southern Bavaria, a suspected case also occurred in Coburg in Upper Franconia.
fek / AFP