Scammers cheat elderly man out of $700k A West Australian man has been cheated out of 700-thousand-dollars in an inheritance and investment scam. The man, aged in his 70s, was caught up in the fraud for three years. Police say more than $1 million has been sent to scammers in West Africa from WA's Mid West region alone in recent months, with police visiting 23 fraud victims this week. A Geraldton construction worker, aged in his 30's, was tricked into sending a woman he met through a dating website 26-thousand-dollars. He even paid for her flight to Perth and went to the airport to pick her up, but she never showed. The amounts sent to scammers by other victims ranges from $300 through to $75,000. The police assignment Operation Sunbird began in May 2012 due to a rising amount of money being transferred from WA to West Africa including Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. It developed into Project Sunbird when the scale of the problem was realised and is now coordinated by the Major Fraud Squad and Consumer Protection.