Self-confessed Facebook scammer ‘needs help’ to stop defrauding people online
A New Zealand Facebook scammer who has left a trail of angry people in her wake over several years says she needs help to stop and deserves everything that’s coming to her.
Christchurch woman Summer Morrell admitted to Stuff that she was responsible for several Facebook group scams where she received money for goods that were never dispatched.
“Yes. It’s definitely all correct.”
On Thursday morning – hours after this story was published – Morell still had listings of iPhones for sale on Facebook marketplace. They were pulled down about 9am.
On Tuesday, Morrell’s fraud was exposed when Jessica Emily shared publicly on social media community pages how she had been fleeced of $158 after she bought a vintage dress from Morrell.
The former Christchurch resident had been looking for a specific second-hand dress within a private vintage clothing group
Morrell, who also goes by the name Summer Hunt and other aliases, had joined the group and sent Emily screenshots of the same dress, saying she had one for sale.
Morrell then asked Emily to pay her friend, Jess, as she was the person who had the dress for sale.
Emily paid but asked for the friend’s contact details days later when she could not get Morrell to pass on the tracking number of the parcel.
The phone number turned out to be Morrell’s but when confronted she still claimed the number was her friend’s, but called the friend by a different name.
“I had a funny feeling about the sale, but did an image reverse search before purchasing, which initially showed nothing, so I decided to go ahead.”
Emily still has not received the dress.
Within hours of posting about Morrell, she received a barrage of private messages from other victims. Some have subsequently filed police reports.
Northland farmer Maree Broughton had a similar experience when she bought a Furmoo purse on October 9 as a Christmas present for her mother.
Broughton posted about what she was after in a private Facebook group, and received a direct message from Morrell who said she had the same purse for sale.
Broughton, like Emily, trusted the group she was in, and checked out Morrell’s profile, which included pictures of children and animals.
Both women thought she looked legitimate.
However, $64.50 later and after many messages asking for parcel tracking numbers – and at least four promises of a refund – Broughton did not believe she would ever get the purse or her money back.
“Hopefully she gets some sort of help,” Broughton said.
For Gabrielle Schwabe, Morrell’s scam left her without a suitable formal dress for an important black-tie corporate work function on Friday.
The Lower Hutt woman struggled to find a plus-sized dress, and when she did find one she liked, she asked on a private clothing Facebook group if anyone had one to sell.
She posted a photo of the dress she wanted, and Morrell direct messaged her with a picture of one.
Schwabe paid $106 and was relieved she would be able to go to the important networking event.
However, after days of waiting, Schwabe started to worry.
Morrell said a boyfriend had the tracking number for the parcel, but claimed he couldn’t be contacted. She then convinced her she had paid the amount into a loan account she could not access, but Morrell’s bank told Schwabe that wasn’t correct.
Morrell eventually admitted she had the money and refunded Schwabe last Friday.
But Schwabe no longer had a dress and had decided she would not attend the black tie event.
She was puzzled at Morrell’s actions.
“If she sent the money back it’s obviously not the money – it’s the thrill of it.”
Stuff has seen multiple messages from other people Morrell has tricked.
On Tuesday, Morrell admitted she had previously been fined and sentenced to community service for accessing a computer system dishonestly while she owned a cleaning business.
When asked why she continued to scam people, she said: “I need help… I don’t think it’s compulsive, but I definitely need help with a few things… I don’t know who to ask for help. I deserve everything that’s coming to me anyway because I’m a horrible person that needs help.”
Morrell alleged the court ordered her to undergo counselling, but that had not happened.
She said she was struggling financially and was trying to get away from family members who were using drugs.
“I know it’s not an honest way to do it.”
Morrell said she wanted to pay back those she had scammed, which her family would help her do.
She said she was contemplating handing herself in to police after her scams were made public, and she was going to lose her cleaning job as a result of her offending.
A police spokesperson confirmed they had been notified of a woman who was reportedly scammed while trying to purchase a dress from a seller on Facebook.
Police were continuing to make inquiries, they said.
