Sally Marchant thought she was chatting with a buddy simply days earlier than Christmas, nevertheless it was something however.
The message from her Fb buddy – who had been hacked by AI – was too good to refuse.
“They have been actually encouraging saying, ‘Yeah do it, do it’,” Marchant advised 9News.
The 59-year-old was requested to ship $10,000 for a prize in return for $200,000.
She despatched the cash however shortly realised it was too good to be true.
“I actually believed I used to be speaking to my buddy, messaging him,” she mentioned.
“So I phoned him and bodily spoke to him and he simply went, ‘No, no’, he knew nothing about it.”
The grandmother had taken the funds out of her mortgage, hoping to construct a greater future.
“You possibly can have spent that on so many different fantastic issues. So I used to be cross with myself, I used to be fairly humiliated.”
Fb scams are a rising concern, with these 65 and older the most definitely to be fleeced on the platform.
Studies to Shopper Safety jumped 62 per cent final yr, incomes Meta the highest spot in 2023.
“Any message that comes by way of to you that claims you possibly can win one thing,” Shopper Safety Commissioner Trish Blake mentioned.
“Simply if it is coming by way of from somebody that claims they know you, contact the individual on the small print that you’d usually contact them on, not by way of the message that you have acquired.”
For scammers on Fb, Shopper Safety says it will probably notify Meta to analyze, anticipating the worldwide giants with better know-how entry to be vigorous in shutting down the hackers’ accounts.
With scammers nonetheless gaining access to Marchant’s Fb account, she’s vowing to by no means return to the social media platform.
“It is simply too unsafe they usually’re not useful when one thing goes mistaken.”