Romance scam

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A romance scam occurs when strangers pretend romantic intentions, gain the affection of victims, and then use that goodwill to gain access to their victims' money, bank accounts, e-mail accounts, and/or national identification numbers or by getting the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf. [1]

Many of these scams originate from Nigeria[2], Kosovo, Russia, [1], Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) [3], and Ghana[4].

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[edit] Romance scams by newspaper and letters

In the 1980s prisoners within the Louisiana State Penitentiary in unincorporated West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States operated an advance fee fraud scheme. Advertisements, mostly of men seeking men, appeared in newspapers in Canada and the USA. In each case, the scammer sent the mark an image of an attractive person and gave a pressing reason to send money. If the mark complies, the scammer asks for more money.[5] Kirksey McCord Nix used the scheme to raise enough money to buy a corrupt pardon from the Governor of Louisiana.[6]

[edit] Romance scams on the internet

Scammers post profiles on dating websites to fish for victims. Upon finding victims scammers lure them to more private means of communication to allow for fraud to occur. [1]

Some scammers use religious dating websites such as Christian sites, as the victims feel complacent, believing that the scammer has high moral values. [7][3]

Rhonda McGregor, an online moderator for the ROMANCE SCAMS Yahoo! group, stated that many romance scammers avoid answering personal questions and ask their victims many questions. [1] In addition, many fraudulant dating profiles, despite the fact that the profile lists the person as being born and raised in North America, have high education and show photographs of attractive caucasian women, will be poorly written in English and contain many spelling and grammatical errors. This is often a clear sign that the profile author is not fluent in English and contrary to their information shown in the dating profile, is not who they say they are.

[edit] Common variations

Narratives used to extract money from the victims of romantic scams include the following:

  1. The scammer says that his or her boss paid the scammer in postal money orders. The scammer wants the mark to cash the scammer's money orders and then wire money to the scammer. The forged money orders leave the banks to incur debts against the victims.[8]
  2. The scammer says that he or she needs the mark to send money to pay for a passport. The scammer wants the mark to cash the scammer's money orders and then wire money to the scammer. The forged money orders leave the banks to incur debts against the victims.[8]
  3. The scammer says that he or she requires money for flights to the victim's country [9] and somehow never comes, or says that he or she is being held against his or her will by immigration authorities, who demand bribes.[4]
  4. The scammer says that he or she is being held against her will for failure to pay a bill or requires money for hospital bills.[9]
  5. The scammer asks the victim to package goods sent from one address and send the goods to another address. The victim does not realize that the scammer set him or her as a part of a stolen goods distribution scheme. If police investigate the trail, the scammer's use of mules makes tracing of the scammer more difficult. In addition many businesses do not trust Nigerian addresses, so scammers use mules' United States addresses to give the businesses the impression that their transaction is domestic.[7]
  6. The scammer makes a proposal of marriage and needs the victim to send them the cash for the ticket.[2]
  7. The scammer, through an email message, claims to be a "nice girl" that is interested in conversing or pursuing a romantic relationship with the victim. This variant commonly requests a reply to the message in exchange for a photograph, which the scammer has selected from a sizeable pool.

[edit] Romance scams as the subject of documentaries

Romance scams have been a popular subject for documentary-makers: BBC's Panorama covered this, and more recently, in February 2008, it was the subject of an investigation by Morland Sanders for Tonight with Trevor MacDonald

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d "Online Romance Scams Continue To Grow," KMBC
  2. ^ a b "It's a new scam: beware of Nigerians bearing kisses," Sydney Morning Herald
  3. ^ a b "WEST AFRICAN ADVANCE FEE SCAMS," United States Embassy in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire
  4. ^ a b "ROMANCE SCAMS," US Diplomatic Mission in Ghana
  5. ^ "Biloxi Confidential." Crime Library. 11. The Angola Lonely Hearts Club.
  6. ^ "Biloxi Confidential." Crime Library. 16 The Corso Murder.
  7. ^ a b "Seduced into scams: Online lovers often duped," MSNBC. 2.
  8. ^ a b "Seduced into scams: Online lovers often duped," MSNBC. 1.
  9. ^ a b "International Financial Scams – Internet Dating, Inheritance, Work Permits, Overpayment, and Money-Laundering," United States Department of State

[edit] External links

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