Bachelor star Nikki Gogan: I was catfished by a love rat

The popular Bachelor contestant – who lost out to Alex Nation in the finale of the 2016 series – has revealed that she’s been ‘catfished’, after she fell for the affections of a hustler who deceived her over eight long months.

Catfishing is the term given to a love rat who pretends to be someone they’re not – often convincing their victim they’re richer and more attractive than they are, usually on social media – in order to win their heart.

Singer and Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan is another prominent Australian to fall victim to the love scam, meeting a man online and dating him for six years without ever meeting – only to learn that he was in fact a woman who’d duped her into having sex.

Now New Idea can exclusively reveal that Nikki too has fallen into the trap of a catfish con artist, after meeting a man through her work as a real estate agent.

‘I had no reason not to believe what I was seeing and being told,’ Nikki tells New Idea. ‘But I was very wrong. 

‘It makes you really wonder how trusting you are when you realise how you accepted this big, elaborate story that ended up having so many holes.’

The 30-year-old had been working at Hollett & Lawrence estate agents in her home town of Northam, WA, when she received a call from a man named Matthew who wanted to inspect one of her properties.

He later arrived to view the property driving an expensive sports car, before attending at least three other inspections – traveling in a different luxury car each time.

While Matthew never bought any property from Nikki, the relationship soon became romantic and he even spent a lot of time with the bubbly blonde’s family – including Christmas Day.

The pair spent eight months together before Matthew called time on the relationship, when his web of lies became too extreme to maintain. It was during a chance meeting with another woman in Perth, who shared the same experience, that they realised they’d both fallen victim to the same fraud.

And after some research, it was discovered that Matthew isn’t a property developer, as he told Nikki, but in fact a restaurant chef. It’s now believed Matthew is a serial catfish conman operating in Perth, who targets beautiful woman who are likely to be interested in a man who is articulate and asset rich.

Her only encounter with the scammer since he called time on the romance was when Nikki bumped into him last month on the street – but while she attempted to say ‘hello’, Matthew simply ignored her and continued walking.