NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Married woman left $41,000 out of pocket after online scam

David Fisher
By David Fisher
Senior writer·NZ Herald·
5 Jul, 2015 05:30 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Aileen Wood met the man in 2013. Photo / Facebook

Aileen Wood met the man in 2013. Photo / Facebook

A married Woman who fell for an online scam and sent her inheritance overseas says welfare bosses have docked her benefit because of the payments to the stranger she met on the internet.

It has left Aileen Wood, 53, with a $41,000 gulf in her finances and a reduced amount of money each week on which to live.

The 18-month online relationship has left Mrs Wood emotionally and financially devastated.

It has emerged the Ministry of Social Development cut $100 a week from Mrs Wood's entitlement because it considered the money sent offshore to be a loan. An increasing financial pinch meant the reduced amount was impossible to live on, she said.

She chose to speak out only when cuts to her benefit made it difficult to manage through the week - and as a warning to others lured by promises of online love.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I've been scammed," she told the New Zealand Herald. "It really has stuffed my life for me. I was grieving. I got caught at the wrong time. If I could catch up with him, I'd kill him."

Mrs Wood, who is married, said contact with the man began in 2013 at a time which she was grieving the loss of her mother, who had left an inheritance of about $50,000.

The invitation came through Facebook and once established transferred to email and instant messaging services. The original Facebook page appeared to have been removed about the time she suggested other ways of staying in touch.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The man, who called himself Nathan Salvatore, said he was an American living in England but making contact from Malaysia, where he had been injured and was in need of hospital treatment.

Mrs Wood said she sent the man $33,000, mainly from the money left by her mother. When he pushed for more money, she sent another $8000 borrowed from credit cards.

In one exchange, he told her she needed to find new ways of getting him money because without it he would die and "if I die you are gonna be lonely for ever".

He sent her images which he claimed were of him with his children, and other images in which he was pictured against nondescript backgrounds. At one stage, he even had his "daughter" email Mrs Wood.

Discover more

New Zealand

Missing teen found

05 Jul 08:06 PM

The scammer's gall included having Mrs Wood use her credit card to pay for an online service which would disguise his location when he was online.

He avoided using Skype and other forms of video chat but would engage in phone conversations. No one was answering the mobile numbers when the Herald tried to make contact.

Extensive reading of the chat logs between the scammer and Mrs Wood shows her questions would be met with threats to discontinue contact. When she eventually confronted the man in March, she said he disconnected the call after telling her: "I don't want your bloody help." She has been unable to reach him since.

A ministry spokesman said the estimate of "assets" owned by Mrs Wood and her husband meant they were not entitled to receive some payments. However, the spokesman said the calculation of "total assets" included money which had been sent offshore.

"Until today, the information we had from Mrs Wood was that this money had been loaned."

The spokesman said a new meeting today would work out any additional support to which the couple were entitled.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Malaysia has become a new centre of online scams.

Media in Malaysia reported last year almost 500 people from Africa had been questioned in connection with online scams.

The so-called "Nathan Salvatore". Photo / Supplied
The so-called "Nathan Salvatore". Photo / Supplied

The chat logs:

December 26 2013

10:42pm

Nathan Salvatore: feeling terrible? my chest hurts so bad, i dont know why but it started suddenly this evening

10:43pm

Aileen Wood: Can you get the Hotel Doctor to check you out? If you are having chest pains surely they wouldn't turn you away from the hospital?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

10:47pm

Nathan Salvatore: I did but he said I need real medical attention from the hospital and that's why the doctors over there told me to return urgently. I just have to be patient till the money gets here.

10:47pm

Aileen Wood: Even if you told them it could be your heart? I am just trying to work out how I can ring the lady at the bank?

May 31, 2014

3:11pm

aylenew2000: I tried to get another loan but got turned down?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

3:12pm

aylenew2000: I have been so lonely

3:12pm

Nathan Salvatore: you need to look for a way to come up with something

3:13pm

Nathan Salvatore: am dying here and if i die you are gonna be lonely forever

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

5:08pm

aylenew2000: Will you let me do a video call please? Is there no one we can contact to help you in the UK or the US?

5:09pm

Nathan Salvatore: Dont tell me about video calls Aileen, very soon the video you will be seeing is the one of my dead body

January 5 2015

7:50pm

Aileen Wood: What embassy (did) you contact?

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

7:51pm

Nathan Salvatore: the British embassy here in Malaysia. why do you ask?

7:54pm

Aileen Wood: I was wondering if you could contact them again. I am thinking that I could write to them and see what I can do from here?

7:59pm

Nathan Salvatore: I have done all that... they said they get thousands of complaint everyday and what do i think will happen if they helped everybody with money? I dont enjoy asking for your help because I hate putting you through stress but I have no other option that's why I had to beg you to help me.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

7:59pm

Aileen Wood: I have told you I will help all I can. I can cope with the stress. Do you have a lawyer that can help?

8:06pm

Nathan Salvatore: I have tried all I can. You asking me all these questions makes me feel more handicapped than I already feel right now and it's not really good for me in this condition that I am.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

New Zealand

Lotto: Powerball not struck, one First Division player $1 million richer

12 Jul 08:04 AM
New Zealand

Wall of water floods Kaiteriteri holday park

12 Jul 07:55 AM
New Zealand

Landslides, flooding, fallen trees: Nelson-Tasman residents urged to stay home

12 Jul 06:34 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Lotto: Powerball not struck, one First Division player $1 million richer

Lotto: Powerball not struck, one First Division player $1 million richer

12 Jul 08:04 AM

Time to check your Lotto numbers to see if you are $1 million richer.

Wall of water floods Kaiteriteri holday park

Wall of water floods Kaiteriteri holday park

12 Jul 07:55 AM
Landslides, flooding, fallen trees: Nelson-Tasman residents urged to stay home

Landslides, flooding, fallen trees: Nelson-Tasman residents urged to stay home

12 Jul 06:34 AM
Second venomous sea snake washes ashore in Coromandel

Second venomous sea snake washes ashore in Coromandel

12 Jul 06:00 AM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP