Criminal scammers use women as mules

Online dating is as common as meeting via friends these days but it has also spawned scams that cost millions of dollars a year, with one West Australian woman the victim of a disturbing new tactic.

The Geraldton woman, 49-year-old Tracy, thought she had met a love interest on a dating website after he sent her roses and chocolates on Valentines Day.

She was unwittingly used as a mule to traffic stolen goods out of Australia.

A couple of months after first conversing online and on the phone with the man, who said he was Mark Gavin Cole, he asked her if she could receive some goods and send them on.

That quickly turned into parcels arriving in Geraldton daily for more than a month. They contained expensive clothing, watches, handbags, shoes and other items that Tracy was asked to send on to an address in Bangkok.

The goods were bought using stolen or fake credit cards.

Tracy's requests to stop the shipments were ignored and she acted when she noticed that some items were bought on a credit card in her name, despite her not having one.

Tracy said she thought the man, who had an Asian accent and claimed to be living in Sydney and working in Canberra, was genuine.

"He was saying all the right things, there was nothing to say he was scamming me or anything," she said.

"I was definitely very vulnerable I don't trust anyone anymore."

Mark Gavin Cole's Facebook profile is still active.

WA Consumer Protections has received similar reports, including a Karratha woman who accepted computers from a man she met online and asked to send them to Malaysia.

Dating scams have cost Australians at least $4.5 million so far this year, based only on what has been reported to the ACCC, and $23 million in 2015 and $28 million in 2014.

The ACCC's advice: be wary of a request for money from anyone who quickly expresses strong emotions for you.

A Consumer Protections spokeswoman said Tracy was fortunate not to have her own money stolen, as typically occurred.

Using vulnerable women as mules enables the criminals to get the stolen goods sent from Australian retailers to local addresses before going overseas, attracting less attention.

Detective Senior Sergeant Steve Potter of the major fraud squad warned that victims can face criminal charges.