A Victorian family are among the victims caught up in one of Australia’s biggest scams, after several family members recommended the scheme to other blood relations.

Aussie fraudster Alan Metcalfe ripped off hundreds of mum and dad investors from all over Australia to the tune of $49 million by spruiking a bogus tech company in a baffling case now being exposed in a news.com.au investigative podcast, The Missing $49 Million.

Mike Brooke, from Melbourne, heard about Metcalfe and his plans to turn his business, Safe Worlds, into a company that would rival Google, after his parents and several extended family members invested in it.

They asked him if he also wanted to put some money in, but Mike, with a background in start-ups and IT, instantly felt something was off and feared it was all one big fraud.

The cyber security expert became the first person to issue public warnings against Safe Worlds, beginning an internet battle with accused scammer Alan Metcalfe after posting about his concerns on a blog in 2014.

Mike said it seemed to cause some conflict in his family – especially when several family members kept investing, despite his pleas for them to stop.

“Nobody said anything directly, but I believe so. There were some quiet Christmases,” Mike said.

News.com.au has launched The Missing $49 Million, our first ever multi-part investigative podcast series.

Alan Metcalfe convinced hundreds of investors to part with their money – in some cases their life savings – because he had discovered the secret code to artificial intelligence in the Bible.

But when he died in 2017, investors were left asking what happened to their money. All $49 million of it.

Lots of money has gone missing, no one seems to know where it is and I’m setting out to find it.

I’ve already unmasked Alan Metcalfe’s life of fraud, dating back to when he was in his early 20s – and I’ve discovered much more about what Alan Metcalfe was up to with investors’ money.

The first three episodes of The Missing $49 Million are available to listen to now wherever you get your podcasts. An episode is coming out every week for this eight-part series.

Available on Spotify here.

Available on Apple Podcasts here.

Do you know more? Get in touch | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au

“I don’t like things that seem to be too good to be true,” Mike explained. “My first step was to reach out to my family and tell them that I don’t think that this is real.”

But concerned that others had also fallen for Metcalfe’s scheme, Mike went a step further. The IT professional already had a blog and he decided to turn his attention to Alan Metcalfe and Safe Worlds.

He called out a number of red flags he’d noticed – including that Safe Worlds was using outdated technology, and as a result it looked terrible, like something straight out of the 90s.

“Looking at the platform, it was diabolical,” Mike said.

The stagnating tech struck him as strange.

“With a start-up, you cannot ever take your foot off the accelerator. You are always building, building, building, iterating and improving your product,” he said.

He flagged other issues, including the fact that Metcalfe hadn’t patented any of the technology.

Mike’s blogging caused an immediate flurry among Safe Worlds investors, with angry messages flooding the comment section. One person even threatened to do him harm.

But Metcalfe wasn’t shying away from criticism. He responded to Mike’s questions and even offered the Melbourne man a discount if he wanted to buy Safe Worlds shares.

“I think he always thought he could bring me around to what it could be,” Mike added.

In response to questions about why there was no patent or trademark for the Safe Worlds technology, Metcalfe said it was because he didn’t want to tip off his competitors.

“You need to know that the world is not honest,” Metcalfe wrote in an email to Mike. “Google and the mainstream media is a direct competitor and they will not go out of their way to promote me or safe worlds TV. The good news is this suits me because particularly until now I have not been interested in educating our competitors as to how universal logic, artificial intelligence works.”

Mike was not convinced and continued to blog about why he thought the business was a scam.

Even with his repeated warnings, his family continued to invest in the Safe Worlds project. 

Professor Clinton Free, an expert on white collar crime from the University of Sydney, said it is actually quite common for scam victims to keep investing – even if friends or family are trying to tell them it’s a con.

It’s a psychological phenomenon known as sunk cost fallacy.

“Once people have committed a certain amount of money, they end up having a bit of a blind belief in the merits of what they’re doing,” Prof Free explained. “And they’re much more likely to continue on a pattern of handing over money, more than a one off transaction might be.”

Australians lost an eye-watering $1.3 billion to investment scheme fraud last year, according data from the National Anti-Scam Centre.

Prof Free cautioned against victim blaming in situations like these.

“Victims of investment fraud are often portrayed as passive dupes – irrational, foolish and greedy,” he said.

“When many people hear the term ‘investment scheme,’ they often think of the notorious email offer from a Nigerian Prince.

“However, investment scams have evolved dramatically in recent years. Modern scams now involve cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and rare earth minerals, reflecting the growing interest in these assets.

“In short, scams are becoming more sophisticated, and no one should feel immune.”

The first three episodes of The Missing $49 Million are available to listen to now wherever you get your podcasts. An episode is coming out every week for this eight-part series.

Available on Spotify here.

Available on Apple Podcasts here.

alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au