In a case of elaborate deception, a Melbourne woman, Mirna Yassine, has been convicted of impersonating registered psychologists and providing fake therapy sessions online for over a year. The 23-year-old stole the identities of two psychologists, duping two separate online telehealth platforms and treating vulnerable clients without proper qualifications.
Sophie, a 26-year-old from Perth, turned to online therapy seeking help for recent life changes and a diagnosis of autism and ADHD. Sophie* selected a provider called someone.health from her doctor’s list. “She was going through a lot of life changes in 2022 — she had graduated from university, started a new job, and had been through a break-up. Life was a bit low for me,” she explained.
Sophie found a profile that seemed like a good fit – a psychologist called ‘Isabella.’ After booking a video telehealth appointment in April 2022, *Sophie* found some elements of the session to be a little strange, including the fact that it was audio-only. The fake psychologist gave *Sophie* some strategies, including breathing exercises, at the end of the session.
However, when *Sophie* booked her next appointment, the psychologist did not appear. After *Sophie* booked another session, someone.health canceled it, citing “admin requirements”. This left her feeling like nobody cared about her and her mental health struggles.
Around the same time, registered psychologist Isabella Bedford-Dyer, based in Melbourne, began receiving strange emails, and eventually received a call from a staffer at someone.health, who explained there were complaints about the psychologist using Ms. Bedford-Dyer’s name. It was discovered that an AHPRA (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency) certificate on file was in her name, but the photo was not of her. It was at this point that Ms. Bedford-Dyer discovered her identity had been stolen, and a fraudulent provider number had been added to her Medicare account. Ms. Bedford-Dyer reported the fraud to Victoria Police.
After being fired from someone.health, Yassine secured a position at Gateway Home Psychology, where she used a different stolen identity to provide fake services to more clients. Gateway Home’s managing director, Matthew Dara, noted that the recruitment agency had claimed to thoroughly vet the candidate. Despite this, Yassine provided services to clients for a short period before being detected. Mr. Dara reported Yassine to police in Brisbane after receiving a “suspicious email” about her.
During the investigation, police seized Yassine’s laptop, phone, and notebooks containing handwritten notes from consultations. In December, Yassine was convicted on four counts of making a false document and obtaining property by deception. Magistrate Michael Wighton described the offending as “extremely serious,” noting that Yassine had obtained money by deception, created false documents, and treated vulnerable people without the proper qualifications.
Ultimately, Yassine was sentenced to 200 hours of community work, including treatment and rehabilitation. Ms. Bedford-Dyer said that the potential harm from the offending was that this breaks the sense of trust and safety, potentially making it hard for those people to seek help in the future.
Sophie, who spent a few years avoiding mental health support following the experience, said, “I can’t really forgive her for what has happened, but having some closure will be nice for myself, and I hope that she can kind of also understand the impacts of what she’s done too.”
In a statement, someone.health said it had removed Yassine from its platform “as soon as we discovered the individual had fraudulently misrepresented their identity and accreditation status”, and that it had “continued to cooperate with authorities throughout the investigation resulting in the conviction”. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and the Psychology Board of Australia said in a statement that employers shoud “take all reasonable steps to verify that their staff are currently registered and are who they say they are”, but that “this can be challenging where offenders take the identities of registered practitioners”. AHPRA and the cons Psychology Board also said their regulation of psychologists wals “continually improving based on sector changes, addressing emerging issues, client needs, and our focus on keeping the public safe”.
