What happens when your life goes from fact to fiction overnight? Sadly, Tracy Hall learned the answer to that question when she swiped right on ‘Max Tavita’ in early 2016, a Bondi surfer and the chief investment officer of a family office.
Initially, Tracy had been drawn to Max’s love of the ocean, running and living a lowkey lifestyle.
But after 16 months together, it was his deeply empathetic nature, intelligence and commitment to building a future together that made her trust him with her heart – and her life savings.
What Max’s dating bio didn’t say was that his real name was Hamish McLaren, and that he was a con man in the ranks of people like Elizabeth Holmes, Bernie Madoff and Anna Delvey.
Of course, Tracy didn’t know any of this until a fateful day in July 2017, when she watched news footage of the man she loved getting led away in handcuffs in front of his Bondi Beach apartment. Shocked and confused, Tracy never thought something like this could happen to her. After all, she was a whip-smart, successful single mum who prided herself on her intuition. However, Tracy was a vulnerable divorcée and Hamish was a master manipulator. He couldn’t have picked a better target.
In the weeks, months and years following Hamish’s arrest, Tracy learned that the man who held her at night wasn’t just plotting to steal her life savings. He had also spent the last three decades conning victims out of $70 million-plus dollars across the US, Canada, London, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Sydney. In 2019, Hamish’s lies landed him in prison, and his story was exposed in the podcast, Who the Hell is Hamish? And now, Hamish McLaren’s famous last victim is ready to share her story.