A Tasmanian woman has been scammed out of around $120,000 after falling for a cryptocurrency catfish.
Speaking with Nine News, Amanda recounts connecting with Mohammed for the first time on Facebook. Thinking “he was attractive and cute,” their simple chat seemingly grew into a romance.
“We were getting along really well,” said Amanda. “We had this kind of chemistry.”
According to Mohammed, he was a cryptocurrency trader who lived in Washington.
After days and nights of chatting, Mohammed declared his love and they actually had a video chat.
“I was looking at him and talking to him – it was him.”
It was only later that Amanda realised he must have been using some sort of DeepFake program to seem as if he was speaking with her.
Three months into their relationship, Mohammed suggested Amanda should invest in cryptocurrency.
After showing her the platform he had invested in, Amanda began to slowly deposit her money into her trading account.
“It was for the future we were planning together.”
Suddenly and without warning, the platform went offline to undergo maintenance. Later, the platform remerged with a different name and Amanda was unable to withdraw her money.
Beginning to doubt Mohammed, Amanda did a reverse image search on Google which led her to discover the images Mohammed was using were that of a real estate agent from London.
Attempting to save his skin, Mohammed then claimed he had assumed this fake identity to protect him as a “big public figure.”
After this, the platform she had invested on began to ask for larger and larger fees.
“I paid the first two signal fees but then I had to stop because I knew it was not right and I was being scammed.”
Months later, Mohammed reconnected who then confessed to Amanda that he was just one of five people she had been speaking with.
“They were all rotating shifts so they were available to me all the time. All five of them shared my money.”
Though Amanda is still financially stable, her losses equated to 25 years worth of her savings.
