Michael thought he’d found his soulmate, then came a cruel twist

Michael thought he’d found his soul mate – a softly spoken nurse by the name of Melanie from South Africa, who shared his passion for the outdoors and caring for others.

During a whirlwind 12-month romance by distance, they shared regular video calls with one another.

It was almost impossible to imagine Melanie didn’t exist.

But only almost. Because despite the deep love, Melanie was a deepfake.

“My heart said, ‘This can’t be true’, but my heart said, ‘I don’t want to abandon her’,” Michael said.

In Michael’s defence, he is an intelligent man who thoroughly researched Melanie.

The 73-year-old retired psychologist asked his new love for all her documents – passport, South African identification card and nurse registration.

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“What impressed me from the start was she sent me lots of personal photos, some of her friends, girlfriends,” Michael said.

“She said she was only about 50 years of age, and getting somebody interested, 20 years older, it was obviously flattering for me,” he said.

What convinced Michael that Melanie was real were the regular video calls, her voice, face and mannerisms matching the woman he’d got to know through messages, emails and phone calls.

So when Melanie needed some financial help, Michael obliged.

“I didn’t question that and I was just really, probably falling in love very quickly,” Michael said.

“Being an empath, it’s very hard to look away,” he added.

Michael admits he lost about $180,000 in transactions to Melanie.  

“I was aware of that, that I would take a big risk, but I thought [I would] meet the love of my life and my soul mate,” Michael said.

“It feels like I’ve been so stupid,” he said tearing up.

Melanie doesn’t exist.

In an elaborate hoax, scammers stole the identity of a US doctor who had no knowledge of the situation, lifting photos and videos posted on her social media accounts, with some of the images photoshopped.

But the scam didn’t end there – the fraudsters then used voice-cloning technology, artificial intelligence and face-swapping apps to create a digital disguise to use during video calls.

“You can imagine an actor wearing a digital mask and the actor is doing all the acting, but the digital mask is kind of moving along,” University of Queensland’s Dr Priyanka Singh said.

The cybersecurity expert specialises in digital forensics and said while the scam was convincing, she has seen far more sophisticated deepfakes, with the technology developing swiftly over the last five years.

“It has moved from fake profiles where they steal a few photos ... and now they are moving to fake people”, she said.

“They’re not hesitant to do video calls, live video calls ... humans are wired to believe what they see.”

After examining a 10-minute call recorded between Michael and Melanie, Singh observed the subtle clues of a scam.

Slight distortions in Melanie’s earrings and stray hairs were proof the face-swapping software struggles to keep up with the movement of the actual scammer.

The red flags were impossible to miss once you spotted them.

When the video call is sped up, viewers can see Melanie’s chair moves up, down, change shape and even disappears.

And then, there’s her hand.

At first glance, as she brushes it across her face, it appears like nothing is unusual – but pause the clip.

“How many fingers?” Singh points out.

“One, two, three, four, five, six.”

Singh says it’s another distortion in the face-swapping app catching the scammer red handed.

However, the doctor says rather than trying to scrutinise technology that’s becoming increasingly sophisticated, the best test is the approval of loved ones.

In Michael’s case, his daughter voiced concerns about Melanie.

Ultimately for the retiree in his 70s, revenge came when he recorded his final video call with Melanie and called out the scam.

“Your name is not Melanie McCallum,” he told the fraudster.

“The whole thing is a scheme and I’m really sad and I’m angry,” he said.

Defiantly, the scammer put up a fight, trying to emotionally manipulate Michael by requesting more money.

“You’re ambushing me with all this information,” the scammer can be heard saying.

“You’re not even giving me a chance to speak up for myself – it’s just not fair.”

The scammer eventually hangs up when Michael proves he can’t be swayed.

Michael has reported the fraud to police, but being based overseas it’s impossible to trace and to recoup his lost money.

As for his future finding love?

“I stopped all my internet accounts ... best is to meet somebody in person, isn’t it,” he said.