'I look back at it now and think about how stupid I was.' 9News
A NSW woman has told how she was tricked into believing she was in an online relationship with Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin as part of a catfishing scam."I look back at it now and think about how stupid I was," the 45-year-old from regional NSW told 9news.com.au.Online scammers have been targeting fans of Australian actor Alex O'Loughlin.
"The messages were all about the show and what I liked about it, what I thought of the last two seasons and that kind of stuff," she said.Sonia said she soon became convinced that she was speaking with the real O'Loughlin - who is based in the US - because the messages indicated a deep knowledge about"I asked him what his real name was, which is information that you really need to dig for, and he knew it straight away," Sonia said.
A photo of some of the jewellery the scammer posing as O'Loughlin claimed to have bought "Sonia" as a gift.Sonia said she forked out $8500 for the customs fee to a "courier" before she realised it was a scam.Sonia said the person posing as O'Loughlin managed to convince her he was a victim of the mailing scam too.
An online search by Sonia revealed that the website was using the logo from a legitimate US bank called Trust Bank."That's when I realised I had been scammed," Sonia said.Sonia said her bank initially refused to reimburse her for any of her losses. It's a small fraction of the $570 million in total losses reported to Scamwatch during the same period.
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