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A blackened banknote leads to a Bangkok sting

60 Minutes Australia revisits a 2013 investigation in which an Australian tourist helps police after losing $140,000 to a scam.

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60 Minutes Australia Story of November 12, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? One of 60 Minutes Australia's most watched videos since yesterday, with 110,256 views.

How tourists are led to financial ruin each year: tricked by scammers | 60 Minutes Australia

Things we can learn from the video

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1:10Rob Connelly describes losing $140,000 to the Bangkok scam and the consequences for his family.
8:41Connelly says the group offered him a role recruiting other Australians.
10:56Connelly joins a sting with former undercover officer Damien Maratt, who poses as a wealthy investor.
13:27A demonstration explains how genuine banknotes are blackened and apparently restored to support the deception.
17:04Thai police enter the hotel room after the money exchange and arrest two men.

Rob Connelly returns to Bangkok not to recover a holiday, but to help set a trap. In 60 Minutes Australia's newly uploaded archival report, the Australian tourist describes losing $140,000 to a "black money" scam before agreeing to assist an undercover operation.

"It was the worst decision I've ever made in my life," he tells reporter Allison Langdon.

The investigation, titled Scammed, originally aired in 2013. Its upload has drawn roughly 110,000 views since yesterday; the events and arrests it depicts are not new.

At the centre of the con is a demonstration that appears to turn blackened paper into spendable banknotes. Connelly shows how genuine money can be darkened and then apparently restored using chemicals, creating the illusion on which the scam depends. The apparent transformation gives the promised fortune something tangible to rest on.

According to the report, the group later offered Connelly a role recruiting other Australians. Instead, he joins former undercover police officer Damien Maratt, who poses as a wealthy prospective investor, for a meeting in a Bangkok hotel room fitted with hidden surveillance.

The footage shows the meeting proceeding to a money exchange before Thai police enter and arrest two men. For Connelly, the operation follows a financial loss whose consequences, he tells Langdon, extended into his family life.

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