Five women have fallen victim to an online dating scam with criminal elements, and police are warning others before they fall in to the same trap.
Police said they were investigating 11 cases where five women had been tricked in to receiving goods bought with stolen credit cards and sending them on to an address in Ghana, believing they were for a man they had met on an online dating site.
Police were satisfied the women, located in Christchurch, Nelson, Palmerston North, Napier and Auckland, had not knowingly assisted the men, but said there could be others who don't realise what they were doing was criminal.
The women were members of online dating sites such as catholicdating.com, christiandating.com or tagged.com. They had been chatting with the man online, who in many cases said he was from Germany.
After several weeks of online conversations he asked if he could have some items delivered to the woman's house, and if she would then send them onto him overseas.
The suitor said he needed the items for his business in Germany and that it was cheaper to send them through Ghana, or that he was a missionary.
He would then send a shipping document to the woman, so that she doesn't have to pay anything to ship the goods.
A number of items bought online with stolen credit card details, such as stereos, televisions, work-boots and designer watches, from New Zealand retailers were then delivered to the woman's house.
The woman would send the goods overseas and never hear from the man again.
Constable Grant Kenny said police believed the online persona used to lure the woman in did not exist, and overseas criminals were behind the profiles.
"In one case the woman spoke to the man on Skype but he said his web camera wasn't working," he said.
"Though it sounds very dubious when we describe it, the men have actually been quite convincing and the woman have been understandably quite upset and embarrassed when they realise they have been tricked."
Police were made aware of the scam when a credit card holder disputed the transaction with the bank and the retailer was advised that the purchase had been made with a stolen credit card.
The majority of the stolen credit card details have been obtained overseas.
"We'll be liaising with Interpol on this, but we want to warn any other unsuspecting person who is asked by a stranger online to send items overseas to be very careful," Mr Kenny said.
He said it was also a warning to retailers to be wary of large online orders that were to be delivered to residential addresses.
"In one case a retailer delivered 5 home entertainment systems to a residential address and the transaction was later found to be made using a stolen credit card," Mr Kenny said.