Internet love hoax leads fan on nine-hour goosechase to Aberdeen

Published on Monday 16 February 2009 23:19

THE humiliating moment a man found he had been tricked into travelling hundreds of miles to meet a "woman" he fell in love with online was fast becoming an online hit last night.

Stuart Slann, 39, drove from his Sheffield home to Aberdeen last month to meet "Emma", a girl he met on Facebook, only to find she had been created by two rival football fans he met on holiday.

Now a phone call the married Manchester United fan received from two Liverpool supporters, revealing the hoax, has attracted almost 50,000 hits on YouTube.

The video begins with the words: "This is Stuart Slann. Stuart drove 500 miles to meet Emma, a girl he fell in love with on Facebook." It then plays the phone conversation, in which the men asked Mr Slann: "Do you recognise our voices, Stuart?

"It's them Scouse lads who threw you in the pool. Do you recognise our Scouse accents?" He replied: "Yes I do." He was told "You've been framed" by the men, who burst into laughter.

Mr Slann, whose wife reportedly left him after discovering his actions, said he was on the road for nine hours on the night he tried to visit Emma.

Mr Slann and the unnamed Liverpool fans are believed to have met in Cancun, Mexico, in November. After returning, the men set up a Facebook account featuring "Emma", and exchanged e-mails and text messages with their target before inviting him to Aberdeen.