Hi all,
For info a few people have provided information as to names, locations, phone numbers used by these scammers.
I have not been able to find any clear avenues of investigation that would assist in identifying anyone in South Australia.
Obviously I can't discuss what I have checked or how I have done that.
I've rung the phone number and it rings out (no surprise there).
With these scams of reasonably high value, they are usually off shore, and information provided by a couple of members does suggest that.
Seems lower value scams run on Gumtree and the like are usually done by people in Australia.
We sadly see 20+ cybercrime reports for just South Australia every day, ranging from the puppy dog scam on Gumtree, up to the romance scams where people finally report it and admit they have been done for tens of thousands (or hundreds of thousands) over a period of time.
I can only encourage anyone who has been stung by these people to make an online cyber crime report via the below link. It may be that someone finally provides some info that will assist in identifying if the scammer(s) are in Australia or not (though I doubt it).
https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/report/are-you-a-victim-of-cybercrime