Despite the fact that Maria Grette was tricked out of thousands of dollars by a man’s devious plan involving the internet, she ended up becoming his buddy and ultimately ended up paying for his education.

After going through a divorce a number of years earlier, the Swedish woman decided to create a profile on an online dating website.

Shortly after doing so, she began exchanging messages with a man named Johnny.

She developed romantic feelings for someone she believed to be a Danish man aged 58, and the relationship evolved.

After three months of flirting and discussion, Johnny told her that he intended on meeting her in Sweden, but before that, he told her that he had to fly to Nigeria to accompany his son Nick for a job interview. Nick was applying for a job in Nigeria.

The following time Maria checked her phone, it was a call from Johnny, who said that they had been robbed and that his son had been shot in the head.

Nick needed an operation that could save his life, but the doctors reportedly demanded a payment of one thousand euros before they would perform the procedure.

The man’s bank did not have any branches in Africa, and the processing time for wire transfers was several days.

Maria did not give the idea of dishing out the necessary cash a second thought in order to save the family of the man she loved.

She finally came to her senses after he persisted in asking for more money to support the cost of therapy; nevertheless, she stopped responding to his messages after he asked for more money.

Three weeks later, Johnny sent her an email in which he expressed his regret for the dishonesty he had made and revealed that he was a 24-year-old Nigerian “419 scammer” who had committed fraud since he did not have a job despite having graduated from university two years earlier.

The con artist and the Swedish woman kept corresponding with one another until they established a friendship that was founded on truth rather than deception.

Then Maria began to feel that the internet wasn’t good enough, and she wanted to meet ‘Johnny’ in real life. As a result, she decided to take a two week holiday to Abuja, Nigeria, in October of 2009.

It turned out that Johnny’s friends were pleasant young men who made their living by committing fraud over the internet. It was a pleasure to spend time with them.

Maria has spent the last five years providing financial support to African artists so that they can participate in art competitions and exhibitions in Europe.

She does this because she wants to make a difference in the lives of her new friends.

She has been a huge help in locating foreign grants and other forms of support so that her new pals can have access to greater chances.

Not only has the instructor, who is 69 years old, taken pleasure in helping Nigerian musicians advance their careers, but she has also funded Johnny’s education in the United States.

The two keep one another up to date on their lives through regular communication.

Maria stated to the BBC that she holds a great deal of affection for him. “He has asked me to forgive him so many times, and each time I’ve told him the same thing: the most important thing is for him to forgive himself.”

Johnny has recently found employment in the oil industry, and with his increased wealth, he has purchased one of Maria’s paintings, which she then had mailed to him in the United States.