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The Romance Scam

Introduction

The romance scam is generally perpetrated on internet chat rooms and most especially on online dating services. Essentialy it's a variant on the Nigerian 419 fraud but uses a money for romance angle to reel-in the victim. Like so many of these scams the fraud is most frequently perpetrated from Nigeria but it is also active in other West African countries such as Côte d'Ivoire and Senegal. The scam is also becoming more popular in Russia as well and is now often perpetrated from there.

The scam works in two ways. Often the scamsters post fake profiles on multiple dating sites in the hope of getting multiple people who are interested in them. They also stalk these sites looking for potential 'marks'. In other variants they search internet dating boards for potential targets and communicate by email.

Unfortunately anyone looking for love on the internet is at risk as these scamsters are know for targeting both mainstream and more niche sites. Potential victims from any race, sexual orientation, nationality, age and location can be targeted but middle-aged men or women looking for long term relationships are their preferred marks as these people are more likely to have higher incomes, more assets and might be more desperate to attract a potential mate. But the only real criterion is that the prospective victim is looking for a relationship and is therefore willing to open their hearts to the scamsters.

Although they target both men and women, almost all the scammers are actually men who pose as women in order to seduce their male victims. They are able to do this because there are typically more men than women who post profiles on dating sites and also because most of the communication is done via email and instant messaging. However, if and when they need to, the scammers will hire a female voice to talk to their male victims.

The scammers will inform you that they come from whatever country the dating site is geared towards. Their pictures will always be attractive as they are generally stolen from on-line portfolios. To cover the fact that they will be writing at odd times of day the scammers often claim that they will be going abroad or are already working abroad (mainly Nigeria) on some short-term project. For the most part they will claim to be professionals. They will quickly seek to establish a rapport with their victim and then seek to move the conversation away from the moderated space of forum and to email, then instant messaging, video messaging by webcam and telephone calls. They tend to like webcams as it's used to verify that the potential victim is real. However, as the photographs they posted of themselves are not real they won't reveal themselves on web cam and explain that this is because of the poor internet connections and unreliability of service in West Africa.

Now the grooming process proper begins with overt displays of affection and emails arriving several times a day so that the victim can't forget them. They will also frequently use palgarized poems and lyrics to demosntrate their affections. They may even send expensive chocolates, wines and flowers all purchased using stolen credit cards. The scammers (who frequently work in teams of up to six people) will take four months or more to groom their mark. This grooming period ends when the scammer successfuly proposes marriage to his victim and then the scam proper kicks in.

Once the fraudster is certain that the victim now loves him and that he can exhert a degree of control on his mark because of this love the extortion phase of the scam kicks-in. The scammer now invents a series of reasons why he cannot return from his job or posting abroad. Anything from theft of his wallet, lack of money, an illness that needs urgent medical attention. Whatever the excuse it always means that the victim will have to send money abroad, usually via Western Union money transfer. The aim here is to get a number of small but frequent transfers spread across an extended period of time as the scammers can make far more money this way.

The main method of pulling-off this scam is to claim that due to the inefficient banking system in West Africa the scammer cannot cash a large cheque they have obtained from their employer. They ask their victim to cash this cheque for them and ask the victim to keep a small percentage for themselves and wire the rest by Western Union. This relies on the victim's trust as the money needs to be transferred before the bank has a chance to inform the victim that the cheque presented is either lost or stolen.

There are several other variants of the scam's 'sting' and these include:

  • The scammer claims to fall seriously ill or is injured in a crash or other accident and is hospitalized. The victim is then contacted by a 'doctor' or 'hospital administrator' who says that because treatment has to be paid for a sum of $2000 or more and that without this treatment the 'patient' is sure to die.
  • Because a marriage proposal has been made they will sometimes directly ask for money to cover air-fares or visa fees.
  • The scammer claims that they cannot leave the country as they have an unpaid hotel bill or similar which they simply cannot afford to pay and that to return and marry their victim the bill has to be paid.
  • The scammer asks the victim to open a bank account for them or to add then to an existing account so that they can deposit a large cheque in this account (and the system in West Africa will not allow this). If this is acquiesced to then the victim becomes an accomplice in money laundering.
  • A frequent (and increasingly common scam) is the The Re-shipping Scam.
  • Eastern European (and most commonly Russian) scammers tend to use the guise of mail-order bride agencies to scam their victims. The aim once again is to develop a rapid rappor and the desire to meet in person. But before this can be done passports and visas have to be paid for. Of course, after giving the money the woman simply vanishes.
  • Other scammers have their victims pay for high-value goods of eBay or a similar on-line auction house. This way the scammer can gain the goods without leaving a paper trail.
  • A much rarer scam is where the scammer asks the victim to make a cash advance on their credit cards and offer to pay-off the balance for you. Of course, for this to be done you need to forward your card details to the scammer.

However these scams are enacted the outcome is a severe financial loss for the victim (the average seems to be about £4500 per victim). The main effects however are psychological and after the initial shock of the loss and termination of the relationship severe depression can set in.

It is difficult to protect yourself from these scams and the best thing you can do is not move from the official forums of the dating site for a period of several months. Check that the person is who they claim they are. Ask questions and make sure that the answers are consistent. If you find inconsistencies and there are too many excuses when you question these inconsistencies then terminate the relationship immediately. At least that way your remain in control.