Perth grandmother scammed in Facebook con through AI hack trends now
An embarrassed Perth grandmother has opened up how she was tricked into handing over $10,000 in a sophisticated internet con.
Sally Marchant, 59, was chatting to a Facebook friend in December but what she didn't know was she was really talking to a scammer who had hacked her friend's account using AI.
Her 'friend' then told her about a competition opportunity in which she could get $200,000 in return for an initial $10,000 payment.
Despite the scenario sounding hard to believe, Ms Marchant sent the money because she trusted the person she was talking to.
'They were really encouraging saying,''Yeah do it, do it'',' Ms Marchant told Nine News.
'I really believed I was talking to my friend, messaging him.'
Sally Marchant thought she was chatting to her friend on Facebook but it was really a scammer who had hacked into his account
The Perth grandmother dipped into the mortgage on her home (pictured) to pay the scam
A customer was scammed three weeks after receiving this text which was confirmed as legitimate by his bank
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Ms Marchant dipped into her mortgage to get the $10,000.
But she then had doubts and phoned her friend who promptly informed her that they hadn't been chatting and he knew nothing about the supposed investment.
'You could spend that on so many other wonderful things. So I was cross with myself, I was quite humiliated,' Ms Marchant said.
Consumer Protection Commissioner Trish Blake said Australians should be wary of all electronic messages discussing money opportunities.
'Any message that says you could win something (even) if it's coming through from someone that says they know you, contact the person on the details that you would normally contact them on, not via the message that you've received,' she said.
One fifth of all Australian money lost to scams is fleeced via social media platforms.
The federal government says well-resourced tech giants can do
