Two West Australians looking for love have been fleeced out of more than $1.4 million in a matter of weeks, prompting fresh warnings about the danger of scammers preying on vulnerable victims online. And in an example of the growing sophistication of romance hoaxes, a third victim has described how AI-generated video calls tricked her into believing her love interest was genuine. WA ScamNet is aware of 26 separate cases of romance scams with losses totalling $2.9 million so far this year, placing 2024 on track to eclipse last year’s record of $3.7 million. The biggest individual loss was $825,000 by a person who initially believed they were helping pay a romantic partner’s relocation costs before then being dragged into a web of cascading scams. Another person lost $600,000 when they were convinced to invest in a non-existent cryptocurrency platform. In both instances, the scammers used AI-generated “deepfake” imagery to mask their appearance. As part of Scam Awareness Week, a third victim – Maggie – shared her own experience losings “tens of thousands of dollars” after falling for a man she met online. Maggie migrated to Perth from South Africa to live with her children after her husband died. With her kids working away for weeks at a time, Maggie described feeling lonely and depressed and turning to dating sites and singles groups to fill the void. Her very first interaction was with a scammer calling himself Brian and claiming he worked on an oil rig in the North Sea off Scotland. “He showed me his contract, his passport, his IDs, his work IDs, everything,” Maggie said. The two spoke over the phone daily but whenever Maggie insisted on a video call it would need to be scheduled in advance – something she now recognises was a major red flag. Maggie said those video calls were “distorted” but Brian appeared to match the pictures he had sent her. After months of grooming, Brian began asking for money. He claimed a pair of machines on the oil rig had broken down and he needed to replace them out of his own pocket. While uneasy, Maggie eventually sent the money. Further requests flowed from there. It took a “glitch” during a video call for Maggie to finally accept what she had suspected for some time. “While I still heard Brian’s voice, I saw a black man sitting in a cupboard covered with a blanket,” she said. Maggie said she had lost tens of thousands of dollars and struggled with feelings of “self-blame, remorse and resentment” every day. Commerce Minister Sue Ellery said cases like Maggie’s were sadly on the rise. “Their victims lose thousands and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars (and) are left feeling shattered emotionally as well as suffering from the financial loss,” Ms Ellery said. “Our advice is to be incredibly vigilant, to be cautious about love and dating scams. “Never transfer money to someone you have not met in person. Major red flag if someone you have not met in person is asking you for money. Block and delete – get out of it.” Other common scams this year involve fake adverts for shipping containers available at well below market prices, which has tricked 11 victims into parting with $68,063 so far in 2024. More than 200 West Australians have lost just over $300,000 attempting to purchase fake goods on Facebook Marketplace, while 11 people have handed over a combined $28,000 to scammers posing as rental property owners and demanding upfront bonds before the home has even been viewed. Ms Ellery said she was engaged in a “war of words” with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta – which runs Facebook and Instagram – over the platforms’ lack of action even once a scam was reported. “The social media platforms can and should do much more than they are doing to keep their customers safe,” she said. Scams can be reported to the WA ScamNet website of by calling 1300 30 40 54.