After losing her husband and moving across the globe to Perth where her children were but where she knew nobody, Maggie Ayres fell into a deep depression.
Before long, she had turned to online dating sites, eventually falling in love with a man who called himself Bryan.
He was doting and kind, Ms Ayres recalled, leaving her feeling “safe, appreciated and loved” and dismissing warnings from her children.
Bryan claimed to be in charge of an oil rig and begged Ms Ayres to loan him money to buy replacement parts so he could leave the rig and come see her.
Video calls had to be scheduled in advance and Ms Ayres’s doubts were growing, but she ultimately transferred tens of thousands of dollars.
It all came crashing down during another video call after Bryan said he had come off the rig and was staying in a farmhouse in Scotland.
“A technical glitch happened, and while I still heard Bryan’s voice I saw a black man sitting in a cupboard covered with a blanket so that I could see his face and his mouth,” Ms Ayres said.
“I immediately disconnected the call … and I shouted out loud in disbelief: ‘Is this reality? Is this guy the scammer? Am I really being scammed?'”
“I couldn’t believe it.”
Scammers hiding behind AI
Ms Ayres believes her scammer was using deepfake AI technology to disguise his identity on video calls and make the scam more believable.
It is a tactic WA commerce minister Sue Ellery said was used in two more romance scams that netted $1.4 million from another two victims in recent weeks.
If you suspect someone you love is being fleeced in a romance scam, how do you break it to them without them getting defensive? An expert from Relationships Australia talks us through it.
It brings the total amount lost to romance scams in the state this year to $2.9 million, on track to surpass last year’s total of $3.7 million.
Ms Ellery said it was a reminder for people to be “incredibly vigilant” when online and to report anything suspicious to authorities.
“Never transfer money to someone you have not met in person,” she said.
“Major red flag. If someone you have not met in person is asking you for money, block and delete, get out of it.
“If you try and transfer yourself into a day-to-day, face-to-face situation, it would be very strange for someone you’ve just met to ask you for serious amounts of money.
“So why is it that we think it’s okay to give them that money when we’re talking to them online?”
Ms Ayres urged victims to be aware of red flags, like people only video calling at night, getting agitated when people refuse to send money, and having poor vocabulary and spelling.
‘I thought it was just me’
The minister said other scams on the rise included people claiming to sell cheap shipping containers but never delivering them, which cost 11 victims $68,063.
Another 201 victims had reported losing $303,834 on Facebook Marketplace.
“I’m amazed,” was Maggie’s reaction to those numbers.
“I thought it was just me and that I was just a stupid victim of the scheme.”
Ms Ellery said that highlighted another important step for the entire community to take by talking about scams.
“Someone like Maggie, who’s a smart woman, felt that she was the only one that was being affected, when in fact this is happening to thousands of people,” she said.
“So it’s also about encouraging people that there’s nothing to be ashamed of … and we need to make sure that people know how to be vigilant and then know how to report.”
Social media companies also had a role to play, according to Ms Ellery, who described being in a “war of words” with Facebook’s parent company Meta.
“The social media platforms can and should do much more than they are doing to keep their customers safe,” she said.
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