An innocent abroad

The mother. The online relationship. The scam that’s destroying lives. This is how vulnerable Australians are being lured into carrying illegal drugs for a powerful international cartel.

“It’s you or nothing. Just as simple as that,” a man who called himself Precious Max told Yoshe Taylor in an online message. “I hope you have eaten hon,” he said in another. He worried about whether the Queensland teacher and single mother was sleeping. “You have a busy day in the morning,” he reminded her.

The messages that flew between the two through 2013 were intense, detailed, loving.

Around the same time, the Cambodian-based fraudster was sending similar messages to a Melbourne woman, who only wants to be identified by the pseudonym Kay Smith.

In full: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-12/online-love-scam-dupes-mother-into-drug-smuggling/11257522

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