 |
|
 |
| Kidnapped farmer urges internet love caution |
|
After being held hostage for 12 days in Mali, an Australian farmer has told those seeking love on the internet to be careful.
Wheat and sheep farmer Des Gregor, 56, went to Mali to meet a woman he had been corresponding with on the internet and was expecting to marry.
But instead of meeting "Natacha", when he arrived in the capital of Bamako, Mr Gregor was taken hostage by a gang of machete-wielding criminals who demanded AU $100,000 ($84,339).
Mr Gregor told reporters: "I basically was wondering what the hell was going on and then they started demanding money - then I knew things were serious."
"I reckon another couple of days and I wouldn't have returned."
Working together, Australian and Mali police managed to convince the kidnappers to let Mr Gregor enter the Canadian embassy to pick up the ransom.
To those who look for love online, Mr Gregor said: "Just be careful - make sure you check everything out 100 percent."
Mali is currently one of the poorest countries in Africa, with 65 percent of its land desert or semi desert.
|
|
|
 More Related News |
| Aug 20, 2007 16:00:00 | | Facebook addicts 'cost employers billions' | | It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell whether one's PC has been broken into and turned into ... | | | Aug 20, 2007 16:00:00 | | Google Gadget 'could be misused' | | The Google Gadget application could potentially be used for phishing by cyber criminals, according t... | | | Aug 20, 2007 16:00:00 | | Facebook addicts 'cost employers billions' | | Workers surfing the social networking site Facebook are costing billions of dollars in lost time, ac... | | | Aug 20, 2007 16:00:00 | | Skype 'back to normal' | | After a bug took the popular internet calling service Skype offline for at least two days, the compa... | | | Aug 17, 2007 16:00:00 | | Fake IRS emails phish for victims | | Emails pretending to be from the IRS are being sent out over the internet, reports the Pittsburgh Tr... | | | Aug 17, 2007 16:00:00 | | Couple name child for internet symbol | | A Chinese couple has decided to name their child @, the distinctive symbol used in email addresses, ... | | | Aug 17, 2007 16:00:00 | | Simpsons movie pirated | | A pirated version of the new Simpsons movie, which was just released earlier this month, has already... | |
| More News >> |
|
|
