Tracy Hall is an author, advocate and the final known victim of Australian con man Hamish McLaren, whose story was explored in the hit investigative podcast Who the Hell Is Hamish? After an 18-month relationship with a man she knew as Max Tavita, Tracy discovered that the person she loved was living a carefully constructed lie — and had stolen $317,000 of her life savings.

In this episode of You’re Gonna Want To Hear This, Marie Claire Australia’s Georgie McCourt sits down with Tracy to talk romance scams, manipulation, betrayal, money, dating apps and learning to trust herself again.

Tracy opens up about how she met Hamish on a dating app, how he built her trust over time, the warning signs she missed and what happened when she discovered his true identity. She shares the devastating aftermath of losing her savings, confidence and sense of safety, and how she rebuilt her life as a single mother.

She also talks about her memoir The Last Victim, becoming an advocate for safer online dating and financial literacy, why victim-blaming needs to change, and the importance of understanding how romance scams work.

Tracy also explores the future of online deception, from dating app safety to AI scams, deepfakes and voice cloning, and explains why she believes we all need to develop greater “trust literacy” in an increasingly digital world.

Find Tracy's book here https://tracyhall.com.au/the-last-victim

Chapter Markers:

0:00 The arrest

0:48 Welcome to You're Gonna Want To Hear This

2:53 Matching with "Max"

6:39 When money talk becomes manipulation

10:40 Isolation in the relationship

12:22 The first $10,000 investment

12:58 The $317,000 superannuation scam

17:43 Writing The Last Victim

20:41 The shock of betrayal

22:08 Will the money come back?

24:14 A man with no conscience

25:19 The court case

27:28 He kept contacting her from prison

31:23 Rebuilding her life as a single mum

34:23 Why Tracy advocates for scam awareness

38:13 Who gets targeted for scams

39:19 Tracy's money mindset today

44:21 Hamish is released from prison

45:04 The fight for dating app ID verification

52:53 Victim-blaming and language reform

56:26 Learning to trust again

61:35 Trust literacy and the AI threat

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