Woman loses life savings in dating scam
2013-02-08 12:50
Sydney - An Adelaide woman looking for love was bilked of Aus$480 000 (R4.4m)
by a man she met on the internet, South Australia state police said Friday.
The 48-year-old woman sent Aus$80 000 Australian dollars before she was
contacted by another man who told her she had been cheated and he would help
her get her money back.
She paid out another Aus$400 000 Australian dollars before realising she had
been duped twice.
"Our advice is that if you've already sent money and then receive a
request for more money to help recover money, people should consider that as a
further fraudulent attempt to obtain more money," Detective Inspector Greg
Hutchins said.
He warned that recouping money was impossible because of the difficulty of
tracing scammers and bringing prosecutions in foreign countries.
Lovelorn Australians are estimated to give up more than Aus$2.5m a month to
dating scammers. Few come forward to admit their foolishness, preferring to
keep quiet about their losses.
Last year a 61-year-old Adelaide man was jailed for defrauding fellow
Australians of Aus$580 000 through a bank deposit scam.
James Nolan is serving a 5-year sentence after claiming to have Aus$450 000
Australian dollars in a Swiss bank account that he was happy to share with
those who helped him liberate it.
- SAPA
