A Perth woman has been left homeless after losing her life savings of over ₹4.3 crore ($780,000) to online scammers while looking for love. According to a report, 57-year-old Annette Ford is now couch-surfing across Western Australia as she struggles to secure affordable housing in a retirement village—while the scammers remain at large.
From heartbreak to deception
Ford turned to online dating in 2018 after the end of her 33-year marriage. Hoping to find companionship, she joined a dating site called Plenty of Fish, where she began chatting with a man named 'William'.
Over the next few months, William gained her trust before asking for money. His first request was for ₹2.75 lakh ($5000), claiming his wallet had been stolen in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
"He said he had been mugged outside the site he was working on and they took his wallet and his cards," Ford recalled.
The demands escalated quickly. Soon, she was paying for his medical bills, a hotel stay, and even wages for workers he allegedly couldn’t pay due to his missing bank cards.
By the time Ford realised she had been scammed, she had already lost ₹1.6 crore ($300,000), draining her self-managed super fund. She reported the fraud to the Australian Federal Police but never received any updates.
A second scam on Facebook
Four years later, Ford fell victim to another scam, this time on Facebook. She connected with a man named 'Nelson', who claimed to be from Amsterdam. He told her he had a friend in the FBI who needed $2500 to help with an ongoing investigation.
Initially suspicious, Ford refused. However, Nelson convinced her to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM. Soon, she noticed unexplained transactions in her account. Before she could react, she had lost another ₹1.5 crore ($280,000).
Now left with nothing, Ford is urging others to be cautious.
“They say all the right things, they sweep you off your feet, but they’re going to take your money and leave you broke,” she warned.
Source: Hindustan Times