How to spot an online romance scammer

[Retro]

This has to be one of the cruellest forms of scamming out there, because not only do they clean out your money, but they break your heart in the worst possible way, causing serious emotional pain on top of the emotional pain from the money you've lost to them. This can be bad enough to lead one to suicide.

Thankfully, I've never fallen victim to this. I had a look at dating sites and could see that they would be rife with fraudsters and liars and hence kept well away. I then saw a TV documentary about this, confirming my worst suspicions and then some. For this reason, I say don't bother with precautions when using dating services, but instead don't use them at all. Much better to be single than single and scammed.

The five warning signs that your new 'girlfriend' or 'boyfriend' is really a scammer

More than 8,000 Brits fell victim to romance frauds last year, losing £92m in total, according to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau.

uk.news.yahoo.com

 

[Tiffany]

Good article, and to the point. I've seen all of these circumstances on the program Web of Lies and other internet programs. Such tragic stories.

The below tips from your article are good for anyone to keep in mind on the internet:

"To keep yourself safe, always be cautious about sharing sensitive personal information such as your home address, phone number or financial details. If you suspect fraudulent activity, don't hesitate to report it to the dating platform and local authorities.

 

[Geffers]

There are some evil nasty people in the World. Conning old people out of savings is a similar crime. Trusting people just conned.

Geffers

 

[Retro]

I'm currently watching Scam Interceptors on the BBC, where they thwart scams in realtime. They use a white hat hacker to allow them to see into the call centres and the scammers' PC desktops and more.

You can see how the scammers prey on vulnerable people, especially those with dementia who can't remember properly, can't make decisions and can't tell that these things are scams even though they're obvious to you and me. They're persistent buggers too who clearly don't give a shit about their victims and the extreme damage that they cause.

In fact, these are whole enterprises, almost always in India, set up like workplaces and run very similarly to legitimate companies with "employees", managers, performance targets, etc.

It's beyond disgusting.

Scam Interceptors is available on iPlayer if you're interested.