Head First

Seasons

2013

8.6

From sex tapes to Aussies in Syria, Sabour Bradley dives head first into the hidden worlds of everyday Australians.

Episode List

S1 • E1

Social Monster

Sabour is fascinated by the modern day phenomenon of Internet love scammers. Cyber criminals are fleecing vulnerable Australians of millions of dollars every month but the only people who seem to be doing anything about it is a Detective from the Queensland Fraud Squad. So Sabour heads to Brisbane to meet Detective Superintendent Brian Hay who runs a victim support group for scam survivors. Sabour is overwhelmed by the stories coming out of the group and decides to meet up with three of the members in the coming days. 82-year old pensioner Bill came out as gay late in life and when he went online for love was taken for a ride to the tune of $120,000. There's Michael, a 30-year old farmer from Chinchilla, who was fleeced of $40,000. And then there's Judy, a middle-aged widow who has been left broke and heartbroken numerous times but is addicted to going online for love. Sabour is so moved by their need for help tha t he decides to track down their scammers - all of who are based in Ghana - and seek justice. Essentially he wants to scam the scammers, and to do that he enlists the help of Detective Hay to teach him the basics. In a short space of time he sets up a sting that requires him to fly all the way to Africa to pull it off. At first Sabour flounders in the capital city of Accra, but when Detective Hay joins him the plan starts to come together. They succeed in using the scammers' own methods against them and quickly lure them in. With the help of the Ghanaian Economic and Organised Crime squad they set up a sting in a hotel that will hopefully take down the criminals. But as with most well-laid plans, things start to unravel very early in the piece and at the height of the sting when Sabour needs the most support, everything goes horribly wrong and he is stuck in a hotel room, alone with two dangerous criminals, his life very much on the line.