Fake robbery of autistic boy online leads to scam warning

An anonymous post to a Facebook community group has left locals in northern WA out of pocket, after an alleged scam artist swindled social media users by suggesting his autistic son was attacked.

The October 26 post to the Broome Noticeboard page claims the author's 15-year-old autistic son was attacked and robbed by two men in Broome, 2,200 kilometres north of Perth.

More than 100 outraged commenters asked how they could help before the post's author published his bank details in the comments, along with a name, Greg Sealey.

A number of the commenters said they had sent money to the account.

But WA Police said they had no record of the incident despite the now-deleted message claiming to have made a report to authorities.

The post also claimed police had CCTV footage of the incident, which authorities told the ABC was not true.

Repeat offender?

It is not the first time someone by that same name has made a call for help on Facebook regarding a theft incident.

Greg Sealey posted on the Prayer Requests group on May 29, saying his car was broken into with money, bank cards and tools stolen, when it was his child's birthday the next day.

The ABC has been unable to verify whether this incident happened, as the post does not specify a location.

A Meta spokesperson said they were reviewing the content and would continue working with government and law enforcement to protect Australians from scams.

"Meta doesn't want scams on our platforms, and we are continuing to invest in tools and technology to prevent them," they said.

Bypassing regulatory checks

Curtin University internet studies professor Tama Leaver said the ability to post anonymously had changed how people communicated online.

"The anonymous function has been abused widely and unfortunately has been very attractive to scammers, who don't even have to go through the effort of setting up a fake Facebook account," Dr Leaver said.

Dr Leaver said scammers had gotten "cannier over time", figuring out ways to bypass Facebook's regulatory checks.

By posting the direct-transfer payment details in the comments as opposed to a call-out in the initial post, scammers could remain undetected, according to Dr Leaver.

"I'm not saying anonymity is always linked to scamming, but there are ways for people to receive funds from communities that don't rely on direct transfer."

Dr Leaver said it was natural for people to want to help others in circumstances of tragedy, especially in their own communities.

"We see the grammar of scams evolving, and it's also true social media is still a very emotional space," he said.

'Practice the pause'

Kimberley consumer protection officer Ange Innes said she recommended that people not transfer money to someone they did not know.

"The Kimberley community is kind and generous, so I can see why people have opened their wallets," she said.

"However, this is a common tactic for scammers; they create stories that will tug at our heartstrings and don't think twice about taking advantage of our goodwill."

Ms Innes said people should report suspected scams to WA ScamNet.

"If you paid money to this person, we recommend you report it to the police and report the profile to the social media platform and admins of that community group," she said.