MAFS star and extended family lose $150k in online investment ‘pyramid scheme’

A former Married At First Sight contestant and her family have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after she fell for an elaborate love scam.

A former Married At First Sight contestant and her family have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after she fell for an elaborate love scam.

Mishel Karen, 51, who appeared on series seven of MAFS in 2020, was coaxed into giving away a chunk of her fortune to what she later learned was a “pyramid scheme”.

The Brisbane resident even recommended the investment opportunity to her cousin and her aunt and uncle, allowing the cyber criminals to rip off her and her extended family members to the tune of $150,000 all up.

When Ms Karen started to become suspicious of the scheme, one of the cyber criminals tricked her into beginning an online relationship with him, and she even shared intimate photos of herself.

This man would message her every day and even sent flowers to her home to maintain the charade of romance.

The reality TV personality had a substantial cache of savings from her stint on MAFS, and from working as an influencer and becoming an OnlyFans star, but she lost $55,000 of her cash to the scam.

With all the stress, Ms Karen ended up hospitalised and months later she hasn’t been able to recover a cent of her stolen funds. The scammers still contact her.

“It’s a long-term scam, not a quick ‘get your money and go’,” Ms Karen warned, speaking to news.com.au.

Mishel Karen has been caught up in a love scam.

The MAFS star is speaking out to warn others.

In June last year, Ms Karen came across an article detailing the success that Australian media icons like David ‘Kochie’ Koch had experienced on a trading website called Everrise Brokers, where they had made $350 in 10 minutes.

Intrigued, she researched Everrise Brokers, and found overwhelmingly positive reviews across multiple different platforms.

Registering her interest, she was then able to create an account, where she had a dashboard of all the major stocks updating in real time.

Ms Karen put in a small amount of money and in turn made small returns.

She was even shown how to withdraw money, being able to take out $130 and was told she would receive a bonus.

So she approached her cousin, Daniel Pasovski, 39, who sank over $15,000 into the endeavour. He then suggested his retired parents invest, who poured in a further $80,000.

Unfortunately, the entire thing turned out to be fake, with every article and review about the company planted to lure people in.

Ms Karen’s main point of contact with Everrise Brokers was a British man who claimed he was called Charles Adamsom. It was this man she slowly fell in love with.

An email with ‘Charles Adamson, one of the scammers.

The sophisticated portal the scammers created to trick unknowing victims.

Mishel and her cousin said the scammers strung them along for months.

Apparently based in the company’s London head office, Charles “had a British accent but with a twang” and bizarrely communicated with her over WhatsApp, Ms Karen recalled.

“When I’d done the first $15,000 or $20,000, I thought this wasn’t for me, I started to question getting money out,” she said.

But sensing there was more money to be had, the scammer started to change his tune with her over WhatsApp messages.

“It becomes romantic, he’s talking about us doing stuff together, this guy is sending me flowers,” she explained.

“It was full on, he must have gone onto my OnlyFans, he was open sexually.”

The pair bonded over both having daughters, and Ms Karen confided in him that her daughter was sick.

They would text and call “nearly every day” and he promised to fly her to London so they could meet.

She would share intimate photos of herself but Charles would never show an image of his face, always sending through “random” photos instead.

However, it all came tumbling down.

The nauseating messages Charles Adamson sent to Mishel.

He promised he would fly her to London so the two could meet.

Charles always sent “white skin” emojis, Ms Karen recalled, but “then one time he sent a dark one”.

“That made me a little bit suspicious,” she said, explaining that usually people send an emoji with their corresponding skin tone, making her think he had been lying to her about his true identity.

Finally things came to a head when Charles claimed he was under investigation over his relationship with Ms Karen and that she would be unable to withdraw her funds as a result.

With a sinking feeling, she realised she had been scammed from the get go.

When news.com.au contacted Everrise Brokers for a comment, the email listed on the website bounced.

Charles Adamson also sent flowers to Mishel and said he was her ‘secret admirer’.

Mr Pasovski, the cousin of the MAFS celebrity, marvelled at the sophistication of the scam, especially as he used to work in the finance sector himself and it didn’t ring any alarm bells for him.

“They explained their feeds, their components, they get a percentage of a trade, it all stacked up, everyone is in it to make a profit for themselves,” he told news.com.au.

“They were very cautious at the beginning, they did it very slowly.”

He even received a commission at the beginning for referring his parents onto the site.

However, around the same time, his cousin realised it wasn’t legitimate and he also came to that conclusion.

An example of a fake review left by the scammers.

Everrise Brokers investment website scammed $150k from Brisbane MAFS star Karen Mishel and her extended family 

Everrise Brokers tried to tell Mr Pasovski he needed to “pop in” another $US15,000 ($A21,290) otherwise his account would dwindle down to nothing.

Even now, months later, the scammers are still hounding them for more money.

“And their arrogance in still trying to get more money is incredible. It is time to stop them,” Mr Pasovski said.

The Everrise Brokers cyber criminals have called him up demanding he put money into a ‘smart contract’ so they can refund his cash to get him to deposit another $US12,000 ($A17,000).

“I’m getting phone calls, people calling me a f***ing b**ch,” Ms Karen added.

People purporting to be from scam recovery agencies are also calling them both, no doubt in league with the original scammers.

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Originally published as MAFS star and extended family lose $150k in online investment ‘pyramid scheme’