Romance Scam

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The English term Romance Scam (or also: Love Scam ) describes a form of Internet fraud in which fake profiles on dating sites are used to trick the victims into being in love with the aim of stealing a financial contribution. It is a modern form of marriage fraud .

Originators and their meshes

By far the most common form of romance scam is operated by organized gangs from Nigeria and Ghana . In the first phase, the scammers preferably generate profiles on free online dating sites in which they pretend to be American or English singles, whereby (mostly false) photos are now also used, so that scammers from Africa also identify themselves as Europeans or North Americans can spend. Here are English-speaking countries particularly popular because here the language barrier is not as big.

With these profiles they contact singles and usually pretend to have fallen in love spontaneously. If a potential victim has bitten it, lengthy mail correspondence, telephone calls and love letters arise before a visit is usually promised in the third phase. In the early phase of the romance scam, this visit threatened to fail due to an incident while traveling through Nigeria or Ghana (involvement in a traffic accident, unauthorized detention, kidnapping, ...) and a money transfer via Western Union was asked to get out of the alleged unfortunate situation to be able to buy free. Today, however, romance scammers have bank accounts around the world to make the money transfer less suspicious.

The reasons for the required money transfer can be very different, as the scammers have now developed a wide range of possibilities; In any case, the scammer wants to get money and avoid the promised meeting. Even if the victim has paid, there will be no meeting. Rather, scammers usually try to persuade their victim to make further payments and always come up with new, plausible reasons for this. Only when the victim no longer wants to (or cannot) pay does the contact end and the scammer's internet profile disappear.

Another form of romance scam is operated by Eastern European gangs with female profiles who, in contrast to the African scammers, do not target women but exclusively men and initiate contact primarily (but not only) through relevant East-West agencies. Scam attempts by men on contact portals for homosexual men, also perpetrated by African and Eastern European perpetrators, have also become known.

Romance scams are not always all about money; some scammers also try to take advantage of their victims in other ways. For example, the victim is asked under a pretext to send a copy of their identification documents, and the data obtained in this way is then used for fraudulent activities. Another variant concerns an alleged friend or relative of the scammer who lives in Europe and needs help. The victim should then, for example, receive or keep parcels for him, unintentionally becoming an accomplice in drug smuggling .

distribution

The FBI reported around $ 50.3 million in 2011 that US citizens transferred to African romance scammers. Around 80% of the victims were female and the majority were over 40 years old. In Europe, due to its linguistic proximity, the UK is particularly affected, with around 200,000 victims here.

Romance scammers are also active in Germany, but the financial damage has not yet been researched. A group arrested in 2018 alone achieved loot of over one million euros with false profiles. In general, one can assume a comparatively high number of unreported cases , since many victims do not report the fraud out of shame. However, this is absolutely advisable, also to help prevent further victims.

Romance scam in dating sites

Romance scammers not only look for potential victims via Facebook , but also go specifically to dating sites , especially free ones . The preferred age group of a romance scammer is 40+. Since many dating sites are now taking action against scammers, the perpetrators usually try to redirect their victim to other communication platforms for further contact.

Procedure of a romance scammer

The procedure of the scammer is always the same. First, the person is written to under a false identity and lured to another medium. Usually the Yahoo! Messenger , Skype , or Facebook used for subsequent communication. The scammer ensures that each of these communication channels has an identical identity. The other information provided by the scammer is also plausible, at least as far as the victim can check it on the Internet. This will instill confidence in the victims and dispel any concerns. In addition, biographical details are often told that are intended to impress the victim (senior professional position, travel around the world, etc.) or are suitable for arousing sympathy (e.g. the failure of a previous relationship by an unfaithful partner). However, the scammer usually reacts dismissively or at least with excuses when a form of communication is requested (e.g. chat via webcam) that would reveal his true identity. For this reason, the scammer also wants to avoid his victim coming to visit him, but instead promises to visit him.

While the content of the messages is inconspicuous at the beginning, it usually happens after a few days that the scammer sends love poems and other love vows. This is very popular with women in particular. These love poems and love vows do not break off either, but remain constant. Due to the physical distance and the relatively little, but targeted information about the scammer, it is easy for the victim to idealize the person pretended to be by the perpetrator and to believe that they have found the dream partner. Often there are also phone calls that are of course always made from non-verifiable cell phones. Finally a meeting is arranged, the scammer pretends to be looking forward to it and also creates great anticipation in his victim.

Then all of a sudden bad news follows, often as a reason for the failure of the planned meeting. This bad news, with which the scammer wants to pull the money out of his victim's pocket, is mostly identical or at least very similar:

  • Sick family member - family member is sick and urgently needs money for surgery. The scammer's own illness is also sometimes put forward.
  • Debt - the scammer has debts that he got into through no fault of his own and urgently needs to repay it.
  • Prison - you were arrested innocently while on a business trip, but you have no identification documents because they were stolen. Money is now needed for the embassy to prepare new documents.
  • Money for flight - The scammer wants to visit the victim, but doesn't have that much money. Usually the scammer is robbed at the airport or on the way to the airport and the money sent is gone.
  • Military service - the scammer is a member of the army and is paid leave to visit the victim. Another variant: The scammer has to buy himself out of conscription by paying money.

The tactic is always the same: The scammer got into an emergency through no fault of his own, in which he needs money - the longed-for meeting can only take place if he receives it from the victim. Sometimes an accomplice appears in this phase who pretends to be a doctor, superior, friend or relative or the like and confirms the scammer's story. This can e.g. B. mean that an alleged doctor reports to the victim who informs about the accident of the scammer and asks for help for his alleged patient.

If the victim pays, the scammer is usually only satisfied for a short time: The promised meeting cannot take place for another reason, and a new excuse is used to ask for money again. If the victim refuses to pay, the scammer will blame them and accuse them of not loving them. He often manages to put his victim under such pressure that he pays again, even several times. Some of the women who have become emotionally dependent not only transfer their entire cash assets to the fraudsters, but also loans taken out on the basis of their claims. Only when the victim is insolvent, finally refuses to pay or insists on a previous meeting does the scam end: the scam's internet profiles are deleted and he no longer answers.

Paid money is lost, and scammers also rely on their victim not to report them out of shame. In fact, many victims are very ashamed and cannot even confide in friends or relatives. Often, even in retrospect, they no longer understand why they allowed themselves to be manipulated. Nevertheless, victims of Internet romance scams should definitely make them public by reporting them to the police, also to help avoid further victims.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ polizei-dein-partner.de: When single women become involuntary drug couriers
  2. ↑ $ 50 Million Lost To Online Romance Scammers Annually . Report on FastCompany.com, accessed October 29, 2012
  3. ↑ Der Spiegel : Defendants Admit Fraud During Online Dating , September 13, 2018
  4. ↑ polizei-beratung.de: Consequences for victims and means of prosecution