An alleged series of unfortunate events prompted a man to keep requesting money from a Salina woman he met online, before she eventually reached out to police.

According to Salina Police Lt. Andrew Zeigler, a 60-year-old woman met a man via Facebook Dating back in 2023. He told her that he was an independent engineer in Kansas City, having traveled there from Florida. His next destination was to a project in Malaysia.

For the first eight months he did not request money from the victim. After allegedly arriving in Malaysia, though, he started to request money from the woman for various reasons. At one point he was allegedly detained at the airport and needed money. He needed more money after allegedly being taken to a fishing village.

She initially sent the man $10,000, and then also several smaller increments, via online transfers and crypto currency.

The man later transferred large amounts of money and cryptocurrency to her, for redistribution to various other accounts.  He sent her increments of $37,000, $20,000, and $9,700, along with smaller amounts, all of which were redistributed.

The woman contacted Salina Police on Wednesday to report what was going on. Her total loss is $14,694.

Police remind everyone to be wary of sending money to someone you’ve interacted with online, but never met in person. Also be wary if someone is sending money to be redistributed. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.