A 52-year-old woman from Lakewood, Colorado has been arrested for involvement in an Olympic rental scam that cost a Surrey homeowner $8,900.

Police in Lakewood, a municipality of 144,000 people near Denver, made the arrest earlier this month after learning the money was picked up at Moneygram offices at Wal-Mart stores in Denver and Lakewood.

When detectives paid Melissa Dawson a visit, they found hundreds of counterfeit cheques, fake lottery winning notifications and dozens of receipts for wire transfers.

There were three computers in her bedroom.

Dawson told the police she was doing a favour for a boyfriend, a lawyer from London England named Raymond Williams.

Investigators believe Williams is also Victor Abramovich, the man who answered an online Craiglist ad from a Surrey woman looking to make some money during the 2010 Olympics by renting out her house.

She was offering her five bedroom executive house in south Whalley.

When Abramovich responded to the ads, he claimed he was a doctor from the United Kingdom.

The homeowner was pleased to learn the doctor and his family were planning to stay beyond the Olympics.

They wanted the house for two years and were prepared to pay a year's rent in advance, $28,800.

But when the cheque arrived, it was for $39,800.

The doctor said it was a mistake and he needed some of that money to help pay to have his furniture moved and to arrange surgery for one of his children.

The woman checked with her financial institution twice to make sure the cheque had not bounced, then she wired the money.

She sent three payments by wire totalling $8,900 before her bank withdrew the $39,800 and advised her that the cheque was a fraud.

She thought the money was going to the UK but when she learned it had actually been picked up in Colorado, she contacted police in Lakewood.

She also learned that the phone calls from the doctor were not made from England, but from Nigeria.

The Surrey woman is not the only person to lose money to the so-called doctor.

A Delta resident lost $6,000 the very same way.

Lakewood police believe that Wlliams/Abramovich has defrauded two other Canadians as well as people in Florida, Tennessee, Washington State, and Virginia.

His victims may include the 52-year-old woman from Colorado, who maintains she is in love with the con man.

Under questioning, Melissa Dawson admitted she'd never actually met her boyfriend.

She said they began communicating by e-mail when Williams contacted her to tell her she'd inherited some money.

She never saw the inheritance, but kept exchanging e-mails with Williams and eventually, she said, they fell in love.

He was able to convince her to make and mail fake lottery winning cheques and collect payments from people who thought they were simply covering administrative costs so they could collect their winnings.

Police notes of the interrogation describe emotional conversations with Dawson, who said she knew what she was doing was illegal.

But she said she was going to continue to communicate with her online boyfriend because they were engaged to be married.

She's been charged with theft.

dferguson@surreyleader.com