Romance Scam: An Interview with survivor Tracy Hall 

Many will know that Cybertrace are experts in investigating romance scams and most survivor stories that we address are from cyber enabled romance scams. These romance scams leave victims devastated both financially and emotionally. For this article, our CEO, Dan Halpin spoke with Australian romance scam survivor, Tracy Hall who was the target of a complex and highly manipulative scam which used a combination of online and in person techniques to ensnare Tracy and steal her life savings. This is a timely reminder that romance scams don’t always follow the same processes and exhibit the same red flags. Awareness is needed when dating to detect deception before it strikes.  

Tracy met Hamish through a dating app in 2016 who for this scam was posing as Max Tavita. At the time, Tracy was 40 years old, newly single, and exploring online dating. Max introduced himself as a Chief Financial Officer for a Family Office who had recently returned to Sydney from working in New York and London over several years. Tracy and Hamish met in person and developed a relationship that extended almost 18 months where Tracy was convinced, groomed and guided by Hamish to transfer her life savings. 

Like many romance scams, there were multiple victims, and unfortunately, Tracy was just one of many who live today as survivors of Hamish McLaren’s deception. To learn more about how Hamish was eventually arrested by police in 2017, you can listen to The Australian’s hit podcast WHO THE HELL IS HAMISH or visit Tracy’s website, where you can learn more or order a copy of her highly insightful memoir, The Last Victim. Tracy is living testament to the notion that it doesn’t matter how well educated you are, where you’ve travelled, how strong your intuition is or what type of career you’ve had – anyone can fall victim to these scams and fraud.

Interview with Tracy Hall 

1. Your book, The Last Victim, details your personal experience with a romance scam. What motivated you to share your story so publicly? 

I never thought something like this would happen to me.  None of us do. In fairness we all think we’re smarter, more educated and hold beliefs like “I’d never fall for that”.  I was determined to turn my experience into something positive to help others – I don’t want anyone else to go through what I went through.  In writing my book The Last Victim I wanted to explore in detail the insidious nature of intimate fraud to educate others, highlight the red flags and to act as a beacon of hope for anyone experiencing something similar.  I now work full time as a speaker, educator and advocate on scams and fraud and overcoming adversity. 

2. Looking back, were there any early red flags in your situation that, in hindsight, you wish you had recognised sooner? 

When you’re wearing your rose-coloured glasses, all the red flags are just flags.  Retrospect is a wonderful thing so in looking back, yes there were many red flags – tall stories to gain empathy and connection, resistance to meeting friends and family, no digital footprint.  Unfortunately, at the time they were beige flags at best. 

3. Romance scammers often use psychological tactics to manipulate their victims. What are some of the key emotional triggers they exploit? 

• Romance scammers typically prey on people looking for genuine connection and love.  They will often be hyper-present in their victims’ lives…. morning, noon and night.  They are overly interested in their everyday events.  They form a deep, constant and dependant emotional bond with the victim in a short space of time – we call this love-bombing.  For some people this contact will be more than they have from anyone else in their life, so it feels hyper intimate and special.  They might use language like soul mate, fate etc.  And they never discuss money upfront.  They create the bond, trust and dependency and then go in for the financial kill. 

• They will elicit and weaponise empathy by revealing their own life challenges that are often untrue.   

• Another tactic they use is mirroring.  This plays on our similarity bias which is essentially a bias we all have that says if someone looks like us, sounds like us, wants the same things as us, has the same morals and values – then we are more likely to trust and fall in love with them.  Sometimes a scammer will mirror the victim’s circumstances to demonstrate shared trauma and understanding (i.e. cheating, divorce, widow etc) 

4. From your experience and research, what commonalities do you see among victims of romance scams, and how can they protect themselves? 

Anyone can fall victim to a scam.  These criminals don’t discriminate.  They are targeting thousands of people at once and hoping that at least some will take the bait.  What we often see is some vulnerability that has been exploited.  And that vulnerability could be someone who is grieving, busy, distracted, lonely, tired.  Any number of circumstances might make someone vulnerable to these criminals.  What people need to be aware of is heightened emotional states that might leave them vulnerable – this could be fear, love, hope or excitement.  It is in these heightened emotional states that we have less access to our rational and critical thinking, so we don’t always see things for what they are and possibly miss those red flags. 

Talk about your connections with trusted friends or family.  Often those closest to us will see things that we don’t especially when we’re falling in love. 

5. Many victims struggle with shame and fear of judgment. What advice would you give to someone who has fallen for a romance scam but is hesitant to come forward? 

You are a victim of crime.  This is not your fault.  Many people don’t come forward because of shame and fear of judgement, but how can we solve this huge issue if we don’t have the full picture. Your report could prevent someone else going through the same experience.   

These criminals are professionals, they are operating organised crime in a very sophisticated way.  You are not to blame, you are not stupid, they are criminals and this is a crime. Positioning it in this way is often helpful to victims who are feeling shame and embarrassment.   

I encourage people to think about it like they would a violent crime – however the criminal has not broken into their home and threatened them with a physical weapon.  They have worked their way into the heads and hearts of victims digitally and emotionally and they have used psychological weapons rather than guns and knives. 

6. In your view, how effective are law enforcement agencies and financial institutions in tackling romance scams, and what improvements would you like to see? 

I think there is a genuine desire to counter the threat and there is a lot of time, money and resources being allocated to solutions.  My concern is that we are not moving fast enough.  These criminals don’t care for governance, compliance, risk frameworks and ethics in AI – so they are innovating, pivoting and evolving on the daily and quite frankly the world is struggling to keep up.  These are also borderless crimes so internationally there needs to be incredible levels of collaboration which is difficult given different jurisdictions – but we have to find a solution otherwise it will never end. 

What I’d love to see more of is a focus on the victim – victim support pathways that go beyond retrieving the money.  Rarely is the money lost the toughest thing for a victim to cope with.  The long-term psychological impact and impact on the community and our society as a whole is something we need to seriously address.  This is why I do what I do, to remind everyone working so hard in this space – that there are humans at the centre of these crimes whose lives have been destroyed and flattened by the greed of others.  We can’t forget that. 

7. With scammers increasingly using AI-generated profiles and deepfake videos, how can people adapt their online safety strategies? 

Don’t believe everything you see.  Be boldly curious.  Have family passwords.  Educate yourself continuously.  Remain sceptical not cynical. Trust but verify.  And no matter how much you love them, love your money, your identity and your financial security more. 

8. If you could give one piece of advice to someone looking for love online, what would it be? 

• Search for a digital footprint – if you can’t find someone anywhere online – RED FLAG 

• Do a reverse image search – Social Catfish, Tineye, Facecheck.id 

• Meet family and friends (on both sides very quickly) – if there is resistance – RED FLAG 

• Do NOT give money or personal information – if they need financial assistance, they should have other people they can ask 

• Go slowly & communicate with trusted friends and family about your online matches – don’t be seduced by love bombing 

Thank you, Tracy for your time and dedication to improving awareness and literacy around romance scams. We look forward to collaborating with you for future projects! 

For our readers, don’t forget to visit Tracy’s website at Tracy’s website or buy her book here.