Victims of fraud – Australian case studies

We’ve covered “advance fee fraud” several times on Scam Detectives, and have discussed how a phenomenon known as “escalation of commitment” can drive victims to beg, borrow or even steal money to provide scammers with the “last payment” to release a huge amount of money.

Accountant turned to fraud to fund scam payments

A frightening report from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) describes the case of an accountant who did just this, sending in excess of $900,000 (£510,000) to various recipients in Nigeria, Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK over a 3 year period after falling for the scam. Much of the cash was later proven to be the proceeds of fraud.

Elderly couple refuse to believe authorities

In another of the 31 case studies listed on the AUSTRAC website we see another common problem.

An elderly couple sent over $512,000 (£290,000) to recipients in Ghana, the UK, The Ivory Coast and Hong Kong believing that they were helping friends who needed money to live and to eventually move to Australia.

The most disturbing thing about this case is that even after being warned by Australian authorities that they were being scammed, the couple sent a further $60,000 (£34,000) to scammers overseas.

This highlights a very common problem, which is the refusal of scam victims to believe that they have been taken in, even when shown compelling evidence by friends, family and law enforcement officials.

If you think someone you care about is being scammed, the OFT have published a useful leaflet giving advice which you can download here

Tags: 419, scam victims