‘Just wanted love’: widow’s $170k romance scam destroys family

Adult son claims his widowed mother was a victim of a “romance scam” and was enlisted as a “money mule” in his bid to take over control of her finances.

A woman in her 70s lost $170,000 in a romance scam.

A Queensland family has been torn apart after a widowed woman lost $170,000 in an online romance scam.

The adult son of the woman, aged in her 70s, applied to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal seeking an administrator or guardian be appointed to prevent her from losing more money.

But in a decision published on Monday, the tribunal dismissed the case, finding the woman had the capacity to manage what little finances she had left.

The tribunal heard after the woman was widowed, she moved into a granny flat at her son’s home.

“The son says he became aware she was transferring significant sums and concluded that she was being scammed,” the QCAT decision said.

“He could not convince her of this, however.”

The scam involved the woman sending large amounts of money to a man named Dan whom she said she had once met for 20 minutes.

“(Dan) later told (the woman) he was undertaking a construction project in Türkiye,” the decision said.

“He gave a series of reasons for needing money, such as having been defrauded by a business partner and having had a suitcase stolen from a taxi.

“So, she transferred sums to him.”

The man took steps to monitor his mother’s bank account but she resented his intervention, describing Dan as her “fiance” and saying she believed her grandchildren would be harmed if she did not transfer the funds.

The man also believed his mother was enlisted as a “money mule” as part of the scam.

“This involved her receiving mail and being asked to carry out steps which resulted in someone else being scammed,” the tribunal said.

“(The) son says that after a time (the woman) agreed to stop transferring money to (Dan).

“However, she did not stop, he believes, but merely started using different descriptions in transfers in an effort to disguise them.”

The woman ultimately moved out at her son’s request in October and the pair are now sadly estranged.

The man applied to QCAT seeking intervention to prevent his mother losing more money.

At a hearing in November, the woman told the tribunal she only became suspicious when almost all of her money was gone, and that she regretted being scammed, had made a mistake and “just wanted love”.

She claimed she had learnt her lesson and had not sent money to a scammer for two years, however the tribunal was shown a $13,000 June 2022 transaction from her account labelled ‘hospital reference Dan’.

The tribunal found the transaction was “clearly” a transfer to a scammer” but said “the fact that (the woman) was scammed does not itself mean she lacks capacity”.

“A person with capacity can make an unwise decision or an error of judgment, or even a series of such decisions,” the tribunal wrote.

The tribunal dismissed the son’s application to appoint a guardian or administrator, finding the woman had capacity to make her own financial decisions.