A lonely grandmother who unwittingly helped her online “fiancee” carry out a $100,000 phishing scam that defrauded a retiree of his life savings has been sentenced to six months’ jail.
Georgina Masters, from the Illawarra, believed she was in a committed relationship with an African man named Joseph Trimble when she agreed in February 2017 to let him use her bank account for a series of money transfers.
She told police the pair had connected on Facebook and spoke on the phone daily, but had never met in person. Still, she said Trimble had confessed his love and planned to move to Australia so they could marry.
So Masters said she didn’t hesitate when Trimble initially asked her to accept a stranger’s deposit of $15,000 into her account.
He then had her send him the cash via international money transfer, telling her the funds would be used for building projects in South Africa.
She later told investigating police there were seven transactions in total worth a combined $68,500.
She admitted having concerns about the authenticity of the money but didn’t act on those concerns.
“I honestly thought he loved me...I trusted him,” she told police, but admitted her actions had been “reckless” and that she should have known the money was not legitimate.
In fact, it would later become apparent that Masters was the third person to have been duped by the same elaborate scam – and the second to have done it for love.
A police investigation revealed the $68,500 originally belonged to a Wagga Wagga retiree who fell for a fake email, purportedly from his lawyers, advising him to deposit $100,000 into their trust account to finalise his purchase of an investment property.
The money instead went to a bank account owned by Western Australian man Agustino Bellombra.
As it happened, Bellombra, had recently fallen for a mysterious woman named Angela Robert, whom he’d met on a dating website.
Just days before the $100,000 landed in his account, Bellombra had been contacted by Robert who claimed she had been detained by the Belgian government while in the country to collect a sizable inheritance.
She said her bank accounts had been frozen and she needed money for a lawyer. Bellombra responded immediately, selling some of his personal belongings to send her funds.
Like Masters, he too did not hesitate when his online “lover” then asked him to act as an intermediary in monetary matters.
He agreed to accept transfers for her and gave her his bank details. A few days later the $100,000 from the unsuspecting Wagga retiree landed in his account.
Bellombra then followed Robert’s directions where to put the money – including depositing $68,500 into Georgina Masters’ bank account.
The remaining cash was filtered overseas via international money transfer.
The extent of the fraud came to light after the Wagga retiree discovered he’d been scammed and reported the matter to police.
Detectives connected the dots and subsequently raided Master’s Unanderra house in June 2017, seizing a vast quantity of evidence including transaction receipts, bank statements and hand-written notes
Masters was eventually charged with dealing with proceeds of crime to which she pleaded guilty in court on Friday.
Defence lawyer Matt Ward said the case was unique and described Masters as a “cog in the wheel” of a much larger, well organised fraud circle.
“It’s a cog that needs to be there for the scam to work...but she had no knowledge of the original scam [involving the $100,000],” he said.
“She accepts she’s done a horrible thing to someone she doesn’t know at all.”
Mr Ward confirmed Masters had also transferred $10,000 of her own money to Trimble, which she would never see again.
“She’s received no financial benefit from her actions and now she finds herself in this position,” he said.
In imposing the sentence, Magistrate Michael Stoddart said the matter was a serious one that warranted full time jail.
He also questioned what led Masters to think the scam was legitimate.
“Where does common sense come into the equation?” he said.
“Surely common sense would tell you there’s something wrong with this...now there’s an unfortunate gentleman in Wagga who has lost his life savings.”
Masters was taken into custody but released a short time later after lodging an appeal against the sentence and receiving bail.
The appeal is expected to be heard in Wollongong District Court in late March.
The Illawarra Mercury
