An Australian man who sent money to a woman in the Philippines has found out he was being tricked by a Facebook identity thief, ABS-CBN News reports.

Identity thief suspect Louella Tan reportedly created a bogus Facebook account named "Jen Matheson" using the photos of Fil-Norwegian commercial model Janka Cederstam.

Cederstam later received a call from an Australian who claimed that he met "Matheson" through Facebook.

The Australian, whose name was not disclosed by the media, said he often spent time chatting online with "Matheson" until they grew very close, that they ultimately developed a romantic relationship on the internet.

He said "Matheson" had pleaded for him to send her money as financial support because both her parents were gone and there was no one to support her.

After learning the story, Cederstam immediately lodged a complaint with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against the identity thief and a series of operations were set up, leading to the arrest of Tan.

The suspect was arrested by the NBI team while she was collecting the remittance sent by the Australian via Western Union.

Palmer Mallari, chief of the NBI's Technical Investigation Division, warned the public against the existing identity thieves on social networks, noting that the Philippines has no specific laws on identity theft yet.

"It is the act of stealing one's identity name, pictures, personal circumstances," he explained, adding that users should carefully manage the site's privacy settings to prevent cases of identity theft.

On her Facebook page, Cederstam posted:

"It puts mine and my family's reputation at stake! I'll start deleting 'friends' on FB, will just keep those I'm actually close to as I see my photos on different websites even though it is set on private. To all the posers out there, stop doing what you're doing because you will get caught and brought to JAIL, just like this chick who we tracked for 3 and a half weeks now."

Tan will face charges of estafa, violation of the E-Commerce Law and illegal use of alias, according to ABS-CBN.