An alleged love rat has been caught out by his heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend, who claims everything he told her during their year-long relationship was a complete lie.
Cassandra Taulaki from the Gold Coast, Queensland, is now heartbroken and homeless after her partner, who used the fake name of ‘Marcus Bennet’, allegedly conned her into thinking he was a successful businessman.
The mother-of-one, who is due to give birth within days, also said Bennet claimed he was childless – but she’s since found out he has allegedly fathered at least seven other children.
‘You see this kind of thing in movies and documentaries and I couldn’t believe this has happened to me,’ Taulaki told Daily Mail .
‘I fell for a man who wasn’t even real – he lied about everything, his name, his age, his job, his family, his entire life.
‘I was in really deep and I’m currently pregnant with our child. I’m due in a week.
‘We had made plans for our future and our life together, but it was a future that was built on the foundation of all his lies and I had no idea who I was really dealing with.
‘He was creating a world of fake accounts and fake people – and doing this for years to other women.’
Tongan-born Ms Taulaki thought she’d met the man of her dreams when she started dating the Pacific Islander at the end of 2023.
The single mum was looking for love and the successful jet-setter appeared to tick all the boxes.
In 2023, the tall, dark and handsome engineer told her that he was in for Christmas before returning to his well-paid job in the Middle East.
‘His name obviously is not Marcus,’ Ms Taulaki revealed in social media posts lifting the lid on the alleged deception.
‘He has many names actually – Paul, Pauly, Dartanian, Sam, Ryan, Dox, Antonio…
‘He said he was 32 years old and was a civil engineer in Dubai and was returning to Dubai in Feb 2024.’
Ms Taulaki said the lies kept coming, from a fictional family to life events that simply never happened.
‘He told me he had four brothers, all of which are not real people,’ she said.
‘He told me he was in the n Defence Force. It was believable, he had photos in his military uniform.’
She has since found out the convincing snaps were taken in costumes he hired.
By March 2024, her boyfriend had delayed his return to Dubai to send more time together and Ms Taulaki says she was footing the bill for everything.
‘He had money when I met him, that’s why I wasn’t suspicious,’ Ms Taulaki said.
‘Then he must have ran out of money and that’s when he spun a story about the ATO and his money being tied up in Dubai.
‘That made sense to me because that’s what would usually happen if he was in the situation he was telling me he was in.’
By May the pair were expecting and Ms Taulaki said that’s when his alleged con became even more complex.
She received messages on Facebook from a man she believed was his twin brother, offering congratulations on falling pregnant.
But he later got back in touch with her to ask for money towards a surprise birthday gift for ‘Marcus’.
Ms Taulaki later found out there was no brother – and the fake account had been set up by her boyfriend using edited pictures of himself to look like they were twins.
‘He photoshopped himself in,’ she said. ‘He is so delusional.
‘Who pretends they have a twin brother and photoshops themselves in to photos to look legit and sends to girls?’
Believing they had a future together, Ms Taulaki sold everything she owned in October to head to Dubai to start a new life.
‘I sell everything, I close my business and my plan is to go to New Zealand and see my family and let them know I am pregnant and that I have met a really great guy and we are building a life together and they will meet him at Christmas,’ she explained.
‘Marcus’s parents had [supposedly] bought us an apartment on the Gold Coast and the plan is to go to Dubai for a few months and then come back to and move into this apartment that his parents have bought for us and have the baby.’
But Ms Taulaki said when she arrived in New Zealand things started to unravel.
‘There were a few red flags and I’m starting to think, “that’s strange”,’ she admitted.
In Dubai, Taulaki became more suspicious after his story about a five-year work contract and flash apartment ‘didn’t add up’.
After some detective work online, she finally realised his whole story had allegedly been fake.
“I last spoke to him when I came back to ,” she said. “I was pretending like everything was fine and we were still in a relationship.”
A few weeks later Ms Taulaki took to social media, posting a series of videos of her now ex-boyfriend, vowing to ‘expose’ him for what he had done
Within hours, she was flooded with messages from a string of women who knew Marcus and had similar stories to tell – including seven who were mothers to his children.
Her videos have since racked up millions of views with hundreds of supportive comments, prompting Ms Taulaki to launch a GoFundMe which has raised almost $4000.
‘I am trying to raise funds so I can move into my own place for my children and I, furnish our home and start getting my life back on track as I navigate life with a new born again,’ her plea read.
‘I live in but am an NZ citizen so I do not get government support after I have my baby. I am due in just over a week.
‘I had my funds depleted by a man I had trusted and loved and thought was building a future with.
‘I returned to with no home, no job and little money after fleeing the relationship I was in. I have no family here and appreciate even just a few dollars.
‘I don’t get creator funds on TikTok and can’t monetise my story there so hence why I’ve created this to try and get some help so me and my babies can have a stable home.’
Daily Mail has approached Ms Taulaki for comment.