Online romance frauds break more than hearts. They often break the bank balance of victims with millions of dollars scammed each year from Australians.
The QUT Crime and Justice Research Centre today hosts Tainted Love: a symposium exploring the reality of romance fraud, a free, public symposium with speakers including Dr Cassandra Cross from QUT’s School of Justice who believes victims need more support and compassion.
“The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has just revealed more than $229 million was lost to fraud and scams in 2015,” said Dr Cross who was funded by the Federal Government to produce the soon-to-be-released report ‘Improving responses to online fraud victims: An examination of reporting and support’.
“Investment scams and dating and romance scams resulted in the largest financial losses, especially in the over 55s age group. Yet these figures are unlikely to represent the true extent of the harm incurred by romance fraud as there are traditionally low levels of reporting for this crime type.
“Romance fraud is a hidden problem in society. Many victims suffer in silence and are unable to disclose their situation to those around them, often because of the associated shame and stigma of this crime type.”
Dr Cross has been researching online fraud for eight years. For her most recent project she interviewed 80 fraud victims Australia-wide, each of whom had been scammed of more than $10,000.
“All were shocked that another 79 people across Australia had experienced a similar incident but those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg,” she said.
“Romance fraud happens so easily to so many people who go online looking for a relationship. They find someone special, spend weeks, months and even years dating, communicating via email, Skype, telephone, and text. At some stage they are asked for a small amount of money for a medical emergency, a family drama or something else.
“Before long, they have lost everything, their savings, their superannuation, and are now left with a second mortgage on the family home.
“These are not foolish, naive people. They are intelligent and educated. They are successful. They simply made one decision which saw everything unravel, and this one decision becomes the defining moment of their life.”
Dr Cross said as well as financial losses, fraud also had an impact on the physical health and psychological wellbeing of victims.
“It can lead to depression, relationship breakdown, unemployment, and homelessness. In worst case scenarios, victims take their own lives,” she said.
“Yet our justice system makes it difficult to report fraud and fraud victims are often directly blamed for their situation. People in this situation deserve to be able to talk about what has happened to them without being judged.
“Victim blaming and shaming excludes the role of the offender. It is time we saw a shift towards recognising fraud for the crime it is and placing culpability on the offenders who deserve it.”
Dr Cross will be joined by Sharon Armstrong, a New Zealand advocate for romance scam victims who was once one herself and ended up in an Argentinian jail for attempting to traffick drugs, Delia Rickard, Deputy Chair of the ACCC, Detective Sergeant David Dunn, leader of the Queensland Police Service Fraud Prevention Unit, and David Hillyard, from the Western Australian Government’s Project Sunbird which targets online fraud.
Tainted Love: a symposium exploring the reality of romance fraud is on from 9am-1pm today at the Owen J Wordsworth Room, S Block Level 12, QUT Gardens Point Campus - 2 George Street, Brisbane.
QUT is part of a national collaborative group of five major Australian universities that form the ATN (Australian Technology Network of Universities).
Media contact:
Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au
After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
