Australian woman loses Rs 4.3 cr, becomes homeless, in search for love online

William told Annette Ford that he needed $5,000 after his wallet was stolen in Kuala Lumpur.

An Australian woman in Perth lost all her life savings after she was defrauded of $7,80,000.

According to a report in news.com.au, Annettte Ford (57) who has now resorted to couch surfing in Western Australia, is hoping to find a house at an affordable retirement village.

After Ford's 33-year-old marriage ended in 2018, she joined a dating website called 'Plenty of Fish' and started talking to a man named William.

After several months of conversations, the fraudster earned Ford's trust and asked her for money by making excuses.

William told Ford that he was in need of $5,000 after his wallet was stolen in Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur.

According to the report, which cited Ford telling about her ordeal to another Australian publication, she said, "I was gullible and foolish, and I thought I was in love … we’re all so desperate for love."

She said, "He said he had been mugged outside the site he was working on (in Kuala Lumpur) and they took his wallet and his cards."

"The next thing I know he’s in hospital and I’m being landed with a $5000 hospital payable to an Australian doctor. I (paid) that … then there was a hotel bill, and he said he couldn’t pay the workers on the site because he didn’t have access to his cards (sic)," she added.

The requests for money continued until Ford realised that she was being scammed. By the time she realised, Ford was scammed of $3,00,000 who also filed a complaint with the Australian Federal Police but never heard anything back from them.

Four years later in 2022, Ford was scammed in a similar way for the second time, this time on Facebook.

A man named Nelson who claimed that he lived in Amsterdam told her that he had a friend in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and that he needed $2,500 to aid an ongoing investigation.

Cautious after the first scam, Ford initially refused to pay any money, but the man sent her money which he told her to send into a Bitoin ATM.

Post this, money was being swindled from her account without her knowledge and by the time she suspected, Ford had lost $2,80,000.

According to the Australian publication, Ford said, "Every time I had to go to the crypto machines … it would have been $1000 a pop, and that happened on many occasions."

After losing $7,80,000 in total, Ford urged Australian citizens to be aware of such scams saying, "They say all the right things, they sweep you off your feet … but they’re going to take your money and they’re going to leave you broke."

She added, "Don’t feel like an idiot, don’t feel silly, this is your money … remember how hard you damn well worked for it before you start sending it to somebody you’ve never met."