Forced to leave her homeland in Syria due to war, May* believed she and her family had nothing to lose when she saw a Facebook group offering help obtaining Australian humanitarian visas in May 2018.

The group was administered by a man who claimed to be a member of the Australian parliament, the 27-year-old told SBS.

"We left Syria because of the war, my siblings and I realised we have no future there, and no security," May said, speaking in Arabic.

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Since fleeing in April 2016, she has been living with her parents and three siblings in Saudi Arabia under a visitor visa, which has come with its own challenges.

“The situation is very bad … we aren’t able to study or work,” she said, adding her family were in a difficult financial situation and desperate to leave.

“When I found the [Facebook] group, I was very happy. It was like a door opening.”

The admin of the group, a Melbourne man named Mounzer Kheder - who also goes by ‘Monza Coder’ - told May he could help her family get asylum in Australia because of his connections.

He said he was a Labor MP and had a PhD in engineering, May said, claims repeated on his Facebook, WhatsApp and LinkedIn profiles.

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He told May it was through his connection to the Australian parliament that he said he was able to expedite their application.

“I’m doing an amazing job for you … You are going to come here and be my neighbours,” he told her.

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Trail of deception

Over the following year, a steady stream of WhatsApp messages shows how Mr Kheder persuaded the family, desperate to come to Australia, to make at least eight separate payments totalling $9,570 via Western Union to him and two of his family members - money he said was needed for their visa application to continue.

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May was told the payments would cover everything from an expensive lawyer, a “sponsor”, “guarantor”, and a medical test.

He even asked for more than $2,000 to buy liquor as a gift for the “greedy” minister of immigration’s office manager “Mr Scott”.

“I called the office manager of the minister every day and I remind him that you guys are in that situation,” he said in one message.

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May said she had her doubts but Mr Kheder had provided her with documents including Australian citizenship certificates of two people he said could be the family’s “sponsor” and “guarantor”.

“I was following up with him daily … He would disappear, sometimes for a week or for two weeks. Once he disappeared for a month,” she said.

"When this happens I started doubting things, and I feel worried and I ask myself, ‘why does he do that?’ Then I would tell myself, ‘no way he is scamming us and he has access to these documents’.”

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“What was very important to us also, was that he said he is a member of the parliament in the Australian government.”

In one message he reassured her about the delay: “May, you are my sister but I want to tell you I have more than 400 employees that I manage, all this besides my work at parliament”.

Further promises

Mr Kheder also made claims to May that he was friends with the Australian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and had spoken to him in person about her family's application. The Home Affairs Department did not directly respond to SBS’s questions about whether Mr Kheder has any relationship with the Ambassador.

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In June, when the family told Mr Kheder they were behind on their rent, he provided a letter with a Victoria Police crest, which he claimed would help prevent them from getting evicted.

The ‘statutory declaration’ purported to confirm the family’s visa application had been lodged but the outcome was delayed because of “high prusser [sic] at the IMMI DEP by a large number of applications”.

The document is littered with spelling errors.

“We insure you that the VISA’s will be issued as soon as possible on time fraim between 4 to 10 weeks. All refugees application forms they taking more than the usual time because the large number of people aplay from middle east to travill to Australia [sic].”

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The letter was signed in the name of a Melbourne-based immigration lawyer who, when contacted by SBS, said he had no knowledge of Mr Kheder or May's family and the signature on the document was fraudulent.

Forging such a document would be likely to breach a number of Victorian criminal laws including obtaining financial advantage by deception and falsification of documents.

Victoria Police told SBS it “will investigate all incidents where an offence has been detected.”

'The whole family collapsed'

After 12 months and more than $9,500 later, May now believes Mr Kheder never submitted a visa application on behalf of her family and they have found themselves “back at the beginning”.

“I dropped to the ground and started crying, I felt despair,” May said of the moment she realised.

“I am an educated person. I was in university before the war started ... He made me look stupid.”

“When I told my family, they were in shock … The whole family collapsed.”

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Mr Kheder is an Australian citizen living in Campbellfield, an outer suburb of Melbourne. When contacted by SBS, he admitted taking money from May's family but denied doing anything wrong.

He claimed he was forced by the family to provide assistance after they begged him but could not provide evidence of submitting their visa application or that the money the family paid to him and his family members went towards any application.

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He also could also not explain why he falsely said he was an Australian Labor MP.

A spokesperson for the Australian Labor Party told SBS: “This individual is not, and has never been, a member of parliament representing the Australian Labor Party.”

There is evidence of at least one instance where Mr Kheder emailed the Australian Embassy in Saudi Arabia on behalf of May's family referring to “sponsored refugee application forms” which have been “lodged” and a request for more information. An immigration liaison officer responded saying it did not request documents.

Facebook group still active

May said when she confronted Mr Kheder about the situation in June this year, he blocked her on Facebook, stopped answering her calls and deleted the original Facebook group.

But days later a new group under the name ‘ANZAC company for Immigration, Asylum and Travel to Australia’ appeared, also administered by Mr Kheder.

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It’s original description, written in Arabic, includes a false Australian Company Number and says the group is “a licensed and registered firm at the Department of Immigration. Our main branch is in Australia, but we have agents outside Australia”.

At the time of publishing, there were more than 30 members of the group.

SBS spoke to one of the members, a Syrian man in Lebanon, who said he too had recently discussed making an Australian visa application with Mr Kheder’s help.

He said Mr Kheder also told him that he was an Australian MP and therefore could speed up the process. According to him, Mr Kheder said it would normally cost about $36,700 but he’d help him for about $10,200.

After SBS contacted Mr Kheder, the Facebook group's description changed. Facebook has also since removed Mr Kheder's profile following a complaint.

A wider problem

Daniel Ghezelbash, lawyer and director of the Social Justice Clinic at Macquarie University, said visa scams are common.

“There is a power dynamic between people trying to obtain a visa in Australia who can’t speak English and the people engaged to help them. Unfortunately, instances like this do arise from time to time where people take advantage of that power dynamic,” he said.

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It is unlawful to provide immigration assistance in Australia unless registered with the Office of the Migration Agents Registration Authority. Mr Kheder is not a registered agent.

The Department of Home Affairs told SBS it works closely with a range of agencies and international partners in its efforts to combat visa fraud.

The Department encouraged people to report unlawful operators through Border Watch and Victoria Police referred people to Scamwatch.

May said she would still like to come to Australia to finish her university studies but, for now, the family remains in Saudi Arabia.

She is concerned Mr Kheder will continue to take advantage of other families.

“We want to prevent people from repeating our mistake,” she said.

“I am speaking out because we want to stop Mounzer from doing it again in the future.”

*Name has been changed

Have you been affected by a visa scam in Australia? Contact investigations@sbs.com.au

To read this story in Arabic visit Arabic24