Tasmanian mum’s online romance turns into $120,000 catfishing nightmare

A single mum has said she lost 25 years worth of savings after she was catfished by a man she met on Facebook.

A single mum has said she lost 25 years worth of savings after she was catfished by a man she met on Facebook.

Identified by 9News under the pseudonym of Amanda, the Tasmanian woman said she initially accepted the Facebook friend request of an “attractive and cute” man name Mohammed after seeing his profile on her ‘people you may know’ section.

“I‘ve been fooled, I’ve been betrayed. I thought I was in love and I’m still hurting a lot,” she said.

Initial conversations revealed him to be a US-based cryptocurrency trader, however their “relationship” soon progressed to multiple messages a day.

Mohammed pilfered dozens of images from the social media posts of a London real estate agent, which he then passed off as his own. Picture: Supplied to Nine

One message sent by the man showed a lengthy message with several love heart and rose emojis. The message read: “You are the only woman who had the nerve to break my loneliness to become the centre of my world. You have brought great delight to my heart and joy to my life”.

Mohammed also sent photos of himself regularly, and the pair also shared video calls which appeared to confirm his identity.

Amanda’s catfishing ordeal began after she accepted an innocent Facebook friend request. Picture: iStock.

However, three months into their relationship, Mohammad encouraged her to invest in cryptocurrency. Under the guise of “planning a future together” she agreed and located a Bitcoin ATM which allowed her to deposit up to $9990 a day.

“He showed me a screenshot of his own account, which had about $2 million in it,” she said.

The amount she invested also increased during their online relationship.

During the elaborate 12-month scam, Amanda said she lost around $120,000. This was comprised of the scam deposits and two signal fees amounting to US1000 ($1537) and $US1300 ($1998).

While she was also asked to pay another increment of $US17,550 ($26,980), she realised she was being conned and refused to pay.

Other red flags also included an incident in which the cryptocurrency platform she was using seemingly went offline, before reappearing weeks later with a different name.

‘I was talking to five different guys’

Amanda’s tragic love bubble burst after she ran a reverse Google image of Mohammed’s photos. The results revealed that the ‘real’ Mohammed was actually a London real estate agent who had his identity stolen by the scammers.

Later the actual man, or men, she was speaking to revealed she had been embroiled in a complex scam involving multiple men using the same Facebook account.

“I thought I was talking to one guy. I later found out I was talking to five different guys on the same account,” she said.

“They were all rotating in different shifts so they were available to me all the time. All five of them shared my money.”

While Amanda believed she was talking to a man named Mohammed, he was actually an identity constructed by a team of five men. Picture: iStock.

Australians lose $142 million to romance scams

This year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warned that Australians lost a total of $142 million to romance scams in 2021.

The category was the third highest followed by investment scams ($701 million) and payment redirection scams ($227 million).

Based on findings from Scamwatch, women reported the most scams but men lost more money than women. People over the age of 65 also reported the highest losses, with the figures scammed “steadily” increasing with age.

The alarming amounts came after the ACCC reported that romance and catfishing scams were on the rise in 2021.

The government agency found that criminals used dating apps to lure people into conversations which were then moved into encrypted chat sites. Victims were then encouraged to participate in investment scams, with the scammer encouraging the person to transfer increasing amounts of money before ceasing all communication.

The ACCC said that cryptocurrency scams were used in the majority of these ploys.

“These scams prey on people seeking connection and can leave victims with significant financial losses and emotional distress,” ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard said.

“While traditional dating and romance scams tend to target older Australians, almost half of all losses to romance baiting scams come from people under the age of 35.”