Hmm... I'll try and condense my experience.. For anonymity I'll leave some of the details out.

Ok, so last year I started talking to a guy online from Europe. Everything seemed great, we talked online and on the phone quite a bit, nearly every day, he came to visit me for a week or so and everything still seemed alright...

I moved over there a little more than a year after we started talking. I gave up everything (car, job, belongings I didn't absolutely need), shipping over the things that mattered most, and...

When I got there, he was a TOTALLY different person. He lied about so many things about himself, clearly not to scare me off. I won't go into detail, but it's a real mindfuck to get to know someone for a year and find out that they are not at all that person.

He was a total psychopath in the truest sense of the word, essentially kept me as a prisoner, held knives to my neck, choked me, beat me up, methodically kept me awake at night so I couldn't get rest, etc. etc. etc.. This is someone well-respected in his community..

I'm sure there MUST have been flags that I missed, but I really had no indication of any of this (that I could tell, or anyone I know could tell) beforehand... I escaped as soon as I was able to, thank GOODNESS.... Without a car, without a job, having to leave most of the belongings I had shipped (the ones I cared most about), and fortunately, with a mother who cared enough to let me stay with her while I picked my life up again from pretty much nothing.

I'm making progress about 6 months later, as far as car, work, etc. goes. I miss my books though :/

Anyway... I'm sure this is a very rare thing... But people can portray themselves totally different online, on the phone, and in short amounts of time in person. So use basic caution, obviously (I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that OP, but it's worth saying!). I thought I did, but moving across the world was not my best move. Just glad I came out of it alive, and not too terribly damaged from the barrage of "life lessons" well-learned.