Australian pensioner’s online wife ruled fictitious; daughter inherits estate

Clifford Stanley Perrin died in Maryborough Hospital on Christmas Eve 2025, aged 84 and divorced. He had been the victim of a scam that depleted his finances, leaving his estate with one asset: a small property in Hervey Bay, which was subject to a reverse mortgage. According to the Supreme Court of Queensland judgment in the Will of Clifford Stanley Perrin [2026] QSC 247, his handmade will named the scammer, whose purported name was Stella Helena Perrin, as executor and beneficiary. On 24 September 2026, Treston J found that she did not exist and that her appointment and the gift to her failed.How did a fake online lover target an Australian pensioner’s homeMr Perrin was born on 24 February 1941 and did not finish high school, but worked in a variety of occupations during his working life. His father died in about 1986 and his mother in 2004, and in the years before her death he was her full-time carer. In 2005 he retired to a modest home in Point Vernon, Hervey Bay, where he lived until he went into hospital before his death. He was briefly married between April 1971 and June 1976, and the marriage ended in divorce.The judgment records that his only daughter was born shortly afte...