“On one of the phone calls I heard a rooster in the background,” she recalls. “At that moment I felt like something was off… But I convinced myself it was nothing. You don’t get many roosters in Adelaide”
Despite the warning signs, the relationship continued to develop.
Then came the request for money.
She says one day she got an urgent call from her love interest saying he was in Bali for work and a piece of equipment had exploded. If he didn’t remove it, he claimed, the police would arrest him. He said he urgently needed $5,000 transferred to a woman’s name, purportedly the receptionist at his hotel.
Looking back at it now, she can spot the signs — but at the time she thought someone she cared deeply about was in trouble.
“I was worried the love of my life might get arrested.”
Spotting a relationship scam
Sadly, Cindy isn’t alone.
The most recent Targeting Scams report, published by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission, puts relationship scams in the top three scams causing the most financial harm, with Australians losing $142 million to relationship scams last year.
Relationship scammers set out to steal your heart to defraud you.
“They usually create fake online identities designed to lure you in. Once they’ve gained your trust, often investing several months of close contact, they use your newfound relationship to request that you send them money or gifts,” says James Roberts, General Manager Group Fraud at…
