Samantha Cookes, catfishing, and Netflix-style scams — can fraud be stopped?
Kaitlyn Dever plays fraudster Belle Gibson in hit series Apple Cider Vinegar. Picture: Netflix
As the last act looms for Samantha Cookes next month, when she will be sentenced for defrauding the Department of Social Protection, another extraordinary fraud tale is providing true crime enthusiasts with a gripping Netflix series to binge on.
is one of the most popular series currently being streamed and is the latest media production based on the lives and schemes of true crime fraudsters.
Earlier this week, the circuit court in Tralee heard how Samanta Cookes managed to persuade a doctor she had Huntingdon’s disease and he filled out a form in 2020, saying she had been already diagnosed with the disease, as part of her elaborate plot to steal more than €60,000 from the Department of Social Protection.
Ms Cookes first secured supplementary welfare, before being able to claim disability allowances between February 28, 2020, and June 12, 2024. She managed to get the payments by claiming she suffered from a debilitating and ultimately terminal illness.
There are echoes of the Samantha Cookes' story in , focused on the life of Belle Gibson, an Australian whose online posts about her battle with cancer captivated her followers, but whose story was ultimately untrue.
Both are also reminders of the Scamanda podcast, which featured the story of an American woman who managed to convince people to part with money for treatment after she blogged about being diagnosed with cancer.
The success of those two stories, as well as the podcasts on Samantha Cookes, show how people love to listen to such tales, out of curiosity about why fraudsters do what they do.
Another hit, the popular GAA Catfish podcast from The 2 Johnnies, also highlighted just how easily somebody can be caught out by a fraudster, even in Ireland where there are few steps of separation between people.
These hit media productions also highlight how the online world has provided a playground for fraudsters and catfishers.
Catfishing typically occurs when an individual assumes a false identity online, often using stolen images or personal details.
The catfisher then deceives their targets into forming relationships, either online or in person.
Victims are deceived into thinking they are in a relationship with a non-existent person.
In the wake of The 2 Johnnies GAA Catfish, mental health organisation Turn2Me set up a catfishing support group for victims of the phenomenon earlier this month.
The 2 Johnnies revealed at least 30 men were deceived by multiple different fake account profiles seemingly made by one woman.
Turn2Me chief executive Fiona O’Malley said: “A lot of those who turned up to the support group meeting signed up for our counselling sessions afterwards.
"I think when people experience something like catfishing, even though a support group is great and there is a fantastic sense of camaraderie, some need individual one-to-one counselling to heal.
“A lot of people will talk about the emotional investment that they have put into this online relationship. They feel mortified afterwards.”
The oldest person who has come to Turn2Me for support after being catfished is 72, while the youngest is 19, with a slight majority being male.
Ms O’Malley says there is a wide variety of reasons why people become catfishers.
“A lot of people who do catfishing can be fantasists, some of them can be lonely and I think the vast majority of them would have self-esteem issues because if you have to pretend to be someone else, or take on another persona to talk to someone, that speaks volumes I think.
"Some people like to be the object of fascination, and some just want that human connection. Some do it for control, coercive control.
"There was a podcast and a Netflix series called which was disturbing and purely about control.”
In that case, English broadcaster Kirat Assi was catfished for nearly 10 years by her own cousin, Simran Bhogal, who posed as a man called Bobby, whom Kirat believed she was in a relationship with.
Ms O’Malley has written to Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan in recent days to seek a meeting to discuss legislation to tackle catfishing.
“There is a bill that has been drafted by former senator Lisa Chambers and it was proposing to extend the Non-Fatal Offences Act to include catfishing," she said.
Ms O’Malley is concerned the bill will “fall by the wayside” with a new government and wants to ensure it does not, even though, she says, it falls down in some areas.
“It is not practical for the everyday user because once I know, for example, that someone is catfishing me, if I am the recipient of the catfishing, or if someone has taken my profile and is using an alias that is me online, it is very difficult to prove," she said.
She has asked the minister what the liabilities on social media platforms and dating apps will be, and what the compensation ought to be for victims of catfishing who cannot get satisfactory results from the tech giants and dating apps.
“I think the social media platforms and dating apps should have a point of contact to report catfishing, a reasonable response time, and a take-down measure, and a profile report for the victim.”
She said people end up with a feeling of “shattered trust” and a feeling of betrayal, leading to a hyper-vigilance after being catfished or defrauded.
But she said it is possible for people to recover and she urged people who are victims of fraudsters not to feel embarrassed or ashamed.
“It is not just people who are impressionable or vulnerable who fall prey to catfishing. Catfishing today is so sophisticated, with deep fake, shallow fake.
"And what is very common in catfishing through social media, they won’t add the person that they are targeting first they will add a lot of their friends and family so that by the time the request comes in, the targeted person will think they must have met them at a night out or at a conference because they have 20 mutual friends in common. Who wouldn’t believe that?”
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