‘He cast himself as a Bear Grylls-type hero’: what makes us vulnerable to online dating cons?

Stephanie Wood spent 14 months in a relationship with a con artist. In her episode of Australian Story, Fake, she reveals how widespread the issue is. Photograph: ABC

I once met a man on the internet who had served in the Special Operations Command. Actually, that’s a lie – one of a barrage that were only revealed when I finally met someone who knew him. As much as you could know him.

So it was a bit of a jolt watching Fakes – Monday night’s episode of Australian Story about serial fantasists and con artists in the online dating world – when one of the women interviewed by journalist Stephanie Wood mentioned: “He said he’d been in the SAS and was awarded a Purple Heart. He said he’d killed people in battle.”