Wellington  - A 36-year-old German woman talked Monday about how she was fooled into visiting New Zealand to meet a man she befriended on the internet who turned out to be quite different from how he portrayed himself online.

The woman, who was identified only as Maja, told the TV3 channel that the man had told her he was 33 and a university student but she realized immediately when he met her at Dunedin International Airport that he had misrepresented himself.

He did not go to university and appeared to be more like 50 years old, a TV3 reporter said.

The woman, said to be a drama teacher and mother of one child, went with him to his house, which was rundown, despite her misgivings.

"I was quite frightened, especially in the first few days, because it was really dark, and I also found like a sword-type thing in the house," she said.

She subsequently telephoned people in Dunedin who she had befriended on her trip, and they called police when she failed to meet them in the city Thursday after earlier messages left them concerned for her safety.

Police raided a suburban house Saturday and called in the armed offenders squad after finding some of the woman's property.

They then lay in wait and intercepted the woman and the man when they returned to the house about midnight, saving her from a "dangerous situation," Detective Steve McGregor said in a statement to the Otago Daily Times.

McGregor warned of the dangers of meeting people on the internet and said caution must be exercised when making arrangements to meet face-to-face.

He said caution was particularly important when a meeting was arranged in a foreign country, where a person might not have family or friends for support and as a consequence became isolated.

The detective said that at this stage, police did not plan to charge the man with any offence. He did not release the woman's name. (dpa)