The Saline County Sheriff’s Office is reminding people of ways to avoid online scams after an area man fell victim to one recently.

Capt. Jim Hughes tells KSAL News that the man started an online conversation with a stranger, and conversations were just general at the beginning. As the relationship continued, the scammer kept promising to come visit or move to the area, and they started to ask for money repeatedly in growing increments.

The man kept complying, and payments reached as high through $30,000 through gift cards and wiring money.  Eventually the man’s bank caught on to the scam and stopped the payments.

Hughes said to be aware of any situation where a person might be asking for money through gift cards and/or wiring. Each money scam has a different twist, but all seem to have similar themes.