In another daunting story straight out of the TV show Catfish, a British woman has been swindled out of AUD$22,800 in an elaborate scheme by scammers pretending to be Bondi Vet Chris Brown.
For around two-and-a-half years, Staffordshire local Lisa Nock was tricked into believing she was dating the famous Aussie veterinarian, receiving AI-generated images, texts, and voice messages over this time. She even received video calls that appeared to show the vet filming in TV studios.
As reported by the Daily Telegraph, the scammers first hit up Nock on Instagram in 2022, through a page that posed as Brown’s official account. They began to chat and eventually won over her trust.
“At first, I asked if he had been hacked and the person replying said ‘no’ [and] that he knew I was a fan and loved animals,” said Nock.
“I was chuffed that Chris Brown had messaged me, I’m a huge fan and hoped this might be our chance to meet. He soon suggested we speak on WhatsApp.”
After several months of texting, she admitted she was “enamoured”, explaining the scammer posing as Brown said he loved her and even wanted to get married.
“Of course I said no and asked if it was a scam,” Nock said. In a pretty reasonable move, she then decided to call the number to verify it, only to find out it didn’t allow incoming calls.
“Then I got a video call with him from another number on encrypted phone messaging platform Telegram where he said ‘I hope this now clears your doubts’.”
Nock is a teacher by trade. However, she has been receiving disability benefits after a car crash left her unable to work.
Through the two-and-a-half-year relationship, the 44-year-old was asked for monthly payments of AUD$400 through crypto and bitcoin payments, which took up a significant chunk of her AUD$1,250 monthly pension payments. (The rest was earmarked to pay rent of around AUD$800 to her parents).
But the payment requests from the scammer eventually grew pretty outlandish, such as $4,000 to arrange to meet in the UK.
She eventually called it quits after she received a ridonkulous message allegedly from his “management”, saying he needed over $40 million to get out of a hostage situation in Australia.
“I said I didn’t have that kind of cash. I cut contact,” she said, per the Daily Telegraph.
She’s now filed a complaint with UK police, but given the payments were made through crypto transactions, it seems unlikely she may get any of the money back.
“I want Chris to know people operating as him are scamming people,” Nock said.
“I’m paying off a big credit card debt and suffer from depression. I’m no fool, I just fell for the cleverness of AI.”
If any of this sounds eerily familiar, that’s because it kinda is — earlier this year, a 53-year-old French woman also made headlines after falling victim to an AI-powered Brad Pitt catfish scam, handing over more than $1.3 million to a con artist pretending to be the Hollywood star.
Honestly, you really do feel for Lisa and anyone else who’s pulled into these elaborate schemes. Here’s hoping her tale saves someone else from swiping right on a scam.
PEDESTRIAN.TV has reached out to Dr Chris Brown for comment.
Lead image: Instagram
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