Mum loses $317k life savings in horror scam

Single mum Tracy Hall was conned out of her life savings after she unknowingly fell in love with Australia’s ‘worst conman’, who she met online.

A single mum has issued a crucial warning about scams after she was swindled out of $300,000 from Australia’s ‘worst conman’.

Sydney mum Tracy Hall never thought she was the type of person to fall for a scam. However she ended up unknowingly falling in love with serial conman Hamish McLaren after meeting him on a dating app in 2016.

During their year and a half relationship, McLaren – who went by the fake name Max Tavita – convinced Ms Hall to set up a self-managed super fund and transfer $317,000 in her life savings.

“He was incredible at the con,” Ms Hall told Sunrise on Friday.

“The majority of my money went into a self-managed super fund that was actually in my name, and I’d set up a trading account with Bell Potter Securities that I thought was in my name.”

Instead, Ms Hall said the money actually went into an account held by Mr McLaren.

Ms Hall was convinced to transfer $317,000 into a self-managed super fund. Picture: Channel 7

It wasn’t until after she saw a video of him being arrested online in 2017, that she realised he was really a scammer.

“I couldn’t believe it, I thought there was a mistake,” she shared.

“I watched those (types of stories) on the news and thought, ‘I would never fall for that’.”

“Yet, I lost my life savings to a man who pretended to love me and at the same time was destroying me.”

Hamish McLaren has been referred to as Australia’s ‘worst conman’. Picture: Channel 7

Ms Hall, who has never received the money back, said she wanted to share her story to “educate people about the pitfalls of falling for a con and really just helping people empower them around their financial security and financial vulnerability”.

She urged all Aussies to be cautious, as we continue to be exposed to scams in our day-to-day lives.

“I don’t think you should go into every situation just looking for red flags because that’s a pretty crappy place to live but I think we all need to be more vigilant,” Ms Hall said.

“There’s not a day that goes by … where you’re not exposed to some type of scam and it is probably not the extent of what I experienced but every day a text message, an email.”

“I think we have to be really vigilant personally, but also look out for our loves ones, like the elderly people in our lives.”

Ms Hall, who is sharing her story in a book called The Last Victim, previously opened up about her relationship with Mr McLaren.

In 2019, she told Sunday Night the fraudster was witty and charming when they first spoke online, and later discussed their future together.

“We went and looked at a house in Byron Bay that we both really liked. We were talking about a future in 10 years time. You know, the conversations were, you know, pretty deep at that point,” she told Sunday Night in 2019.

Mum scammed out of life savings. Picture: Channel 7

She later saw the online news report of his arrest.

“His face was blurred out but he’s very distinctive looking, so, obviously, I knew it was him.”

Soon after, she received a bizarre text message.

“Hi, Tracy. Please call me back on this number urgently. Chris (Hamish’s brother-in-law),” it read.

“I called him straight away, and I said, ‘Who the f**k is Hamish?’ Because that’s the first time I’d (heard that name), and I’m seeing it on a text message, and I’m like, ‘What?’,” Ms Hall said.

“And he said, ‘Hamish Watson, Hamish McLaren’.

“I said, “Well, who’s Max Tavita?” He said, ‘What do you even mean?’ And that’s when … the world came crumbling down around me. It was very surreal.”

McLaren defrauded 15 victims out of a total of $7.6 million.

In 2019, he was sentenced to 16 years in jail, however it was later reduced to 12 years.

He remains behind bars today.