A Queensland man has lost $500,000 of his retirement savings after he fell victim to a "sophisticated and socially engineered" investment scam.
The 66-year-old saw what he thought was a legitimate investment firm on Facebook and began interacting with scammers, who claimed to be account managers, to generate a "passive income" for himself and his children once he retired.
Ben*, who wishes to remain anonymous, told 9news.com.au it was a vulnerable time for him as he was still grieving the loss of his wife and "soulmate" who died from cancer after a long battle.
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The investment site has since been removed from Google search but appears to still be active via the url.
The scam is one of many that copy existing firms by setting up similar operating systems, with managers who guide potential victims through how to "invest" their funds.
The seemingly reputable investors invite people to open up an investment trading account where the scammers can manipulate chats to represent financial growth through a fake version of a real platform.
For example, someone might put in $100 and three days later the account shows it has grown to $120.
The well-spoken scammers pose as account managers and keep in constant contact with the victim to rebuff any fears.
When the victims ask for their funds to be released, the scammers tell them they must pay down their "credits" or their "contract" if they want their funds to be released but don't give them back their funds.
"It was almost like hypnotism… like being brainwashed," Ben told 9news.com.au.
"It wasn't until my bank stepped in and said hang on, wait a minute, you're being scammed here… and they stopped everything.
"That's when I snapped out of it and by that time it was all too late."
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Ben began using the fake investment firm in April and gradually transferred $500,000 until his bank and scam prevention agency Revolut intervened in late July.
He is unable to get his funds back because he made a payment after he was warned it could be a scam by authorities.
Ben admitted he should have done more research and called his mistakes "stupid" but said the scammers were so "smart and clever".
"Once people get entrapped into this you get to a point where you either stop and count your loss or you keep going and try and make it work.
"That's when I found myself in some financial difficulty.
"I've been told the money is there but I can't have access… There's no mercy with these people."
Ben said he felt like he was on a rollercoaster of emotions while trying to come to terms with the loss.
He hasn't yet told his adult children about the scam because he said he was embarrassed.
"I'm okay, sort of, I'll survive but the guilt that I feel that I've lost everything that my wife passed away for (and) the inability now to help my children…"
Ben said he fell into a "deep depression" when he realised what he had done.
Ben has a supportive friend who was helping him through, is finding comfort in his Christian faith and is seeking support from a counsellor.
"I'm trying to focus every day on what's important in life," Ben said.
"I've never been a money person… I've never really put that much importance on being rich and having this or that or ever Keeping Up with the Joneses."
Ben said he has picked up more shifts and would probably have to continue working until he "falls off the perch".
He said he would be okay as he still had some funds and owned his home and car but it was his children, and the charities he was planning to donate to, who are "the losers in this".
Have you got a story? Contact reporter Lucy Slade at ls****@******om.au
Scam prevention
Ben hopes his story will help to stop others from making the same mistakes he did.
He advises people to not trust any financial investment schemes they find on Facebook, to look up Google reviews before investing and to speak with a professional, like an accountant, before making any investments.
In Australia, $568 million was lost to scams in 2022 according to Scamwatch.
Of that loss, $379 million (67 per cent) was from investment scams.
And the trend is continuing this year as $241 million has been lost to investment scams in 2023.
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Head of financial crime at scam prevention agency Revolut Nelson Yiannakou believes a lot of people are not reporting their losses to scams so the amount was likely three times higher.
"We will never, in my opinion, outrun scammers but we will always attempt to outsmart them," Yiannakou said.
He said there had been a prolific increase in scams instead of fraud, which authorities had done a good job of combatting.
Yiannakou said victims were often misguided by scammers to ignore the warnings.
The scammers tell victims it is a "special type of investment" and it is likely to trigger scam warnings because it is so "unique".
"So one of the most important things is that the financial services organisations… step in and intervene with customers.
"Unfortunately a lot of these customers, they're not computer literate, financially literate, technology savvy."
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He said more accountability needed to be placed on social media and telecommunication companies as the source of the scam was likely from social media, phone or email.
"They need to be held far more accountable for the scrutiny and quality of the ads and the information that they place… because there is a cohort of consumers that aren't able to self-regulate."
He also believes there needs to be a greater importance placed on supporting scam victims by law enforcement.
"If someone comes robs your house of $600, the police will come they'll take fingerprints… But if someone comes and robs your account of $600,000 they've got nowhere to go."
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said it removed content that was purposefully intended to deceive, wilfully misrepresent or otherwise exploit others for money or property.
"In an effort to prevent fraudulent activity on the platform that can harm people or businesses, we remove content and action on behaviours that intend to defraud users or third parties," Meta said on it's transparency centre website.
"This includes content that seeks to coordinate or promote these activities using our platform.
"We allow people to raise awareness and educate others as well as condemn these activities unless this includes content that contains sensitive information, such as personally identifiable information."
Each state and territory has a police fraud and scam reporting and prevention service.
In NSW, police said it was their "duty" to minimise the amount of fraud and educate people on the risks.
"The NSW Police Force is working with other Australian government agencies as well as business and community groups to help us address this problem," NSW police said on their website.
Most fraud is investigated at the local level and victims can fill out a form via police websites as well as on Scamwatch here.
* Ben's identity has been changed.
Support is available at Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
