Not very long ago I posted a story about an American woman called 'Sarah' who refused, despite all the evidence, to believe that she was being fleeced on a monumental scale by African fraudsters, and who continued to send money to her 'Italian American' Internet boyfriend named 'Chris Olsen'.
Of course she is not the first, nor indeed the last woman (or man for that matter), who has, or wiill have fallen for a photograph, and some email spiel, and then coughed up hundreds or thousands of pounds, to pay for a visa bill, or bail request etc to their 'dream lover'. This variation on the old Nigerian 419 fraud is known as the 'rom-scam'.
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| Nigerian Scammer Alert |
Of course she is not the first, nor indeed the last woman (or man for that matter), who has, or wiill have fallen for a photograph, and some email spiel, and then coughed up hundreds or thousands of pounds, to pay for a visa bill, or bail request etc to their 'dream lover'. This variation on the old Nigerian 419 fraud is known as the 'rom-scam'.
Recently the UK courts dealt with a Nigerian fraud gang operating out of London (why is that no surprise?). In this case the victim was a wealthy female company director and single mother, who was in her 40's and who lives in the UK. She was the victim in the biggest known rom-scam to-date, and was fleeced out of £1.6 million pounds ($2.3m) .... They used a girl pick up guide called 'The Game', and found her on date site Match.com.
One of the gang posed as 'Christian Anderson' a UK engineer, and they reeled her in. Two of the gang (Ife Ojo and Oluse-gun Agbaje) were caught and found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, after taking at least £45,000 between them from her .... they got 34 and 32 months in prison, but there were other gang members who the police are still hunting (although they have possibly fled the UK), and no more of her £1.6 million has been recovered. The unnamed victim from West London, was reported as saying that "They got what they deserved" ... actually they didn't. They should have got twice the sentence and then been deported.
It appears that there are just two emotions that need to be touched in order to perpetrate an on-line con-fraud .... Greed or Love. If you can touch both in one scam, then you are twice as likely to part the gullible from their money. I had a further look at this, and found more confirmation that it’s the middle-aged and lonely who seem most prone to the date scams ..... in 2011 a UK woman (who I won’t name), was conned out of over £80k on a 'handsome American soldier' who was the creation of yet more Nigerian conmen ... nothing was recovered, and she ended up having to sell her house to pay off her debts. Another UK grandmother lost more than £100,000 to another fake US soldier scam, with the police managing to trace and recover just £13,000, from banks in Nigeria and California.
The scammers modus operandi is always the same ...... create an account on a date site with stolen credit cards, false identities and photos of good-looking white (males normally). Identifying a victim is easy as most members of the dating site wouldn’t be there unless they were lonely and vulnerable, and so picking someone who isn't likely to get any interest i.e. a not good looking woman, who will be easily isolated, will usually get the scammers interest.
One of the gang posed as 'Christian Anderson' a UK engineer, and they reeled her in. Two of the gang (Ife Ojo and Oluse-gun Agbaje) were caught and found guilty of conspiracy to defraud, after taking at least £45,000 between them from her .... they got 34 and 32 months in prison, but there were other gang members who the police are still hunting (although they have possibly fled the UK), and no more of her £1.6 million has been recovered. The unnamed victim from West London, was reported as saying that "They got what they deserved" ... actually they didn't. They should have got twice the sentence and then been deported.
It appears that there are just two emotions that need to be touched in order to perpetrate an on-line con-fraud .... Greed or Love. If you can touch both in one scam, then you are twice as likely to part the gullible from their money. I had a further look at this, and found more confirmation that it’s the middle-aged and lonely who seem most prone to the date scams ..... in 2011 a UK woman (who I won’t name), was conned out of over £80k on a 'handsome American soldier' who was the creation of yet more Nigerian conmen ... nothing was recovered, and she ended up having to sell her house to pay off her debts. Another UK grandmother lost more than £100,000 to another fake US soldier scam, with the police managing to trace and recover just £13,000, from banks in Nigeria and California.
The scammers modus operandi is always the same ...... create an account on a date site with stolen credit cards, false identities and photos of good-looking white (males normally). Identifying a victim is easy as most members of the dating site wouldn’t be there unless they were lonely and vulnerable, and so picking someone who isn't likely to get any interest i.e. a not good looking woman, who will be easily isolated, will usually get the scammers interest.
They may groom them for a while, even sending birthday gifts before the inevitable sting ... a request for money. It’s always a sudden crisis that leaves them in urgent need of cash, which can be sent to their current account or even via money transfer.
In the UK, SOCA (the Serious Organised Crime Agency) has estimated that between £80m – £100m is taken from UK victims .... who are often too embarrassed or ashamed to approach the police or even tell their families. Typically the amounts are fairly modest from £50 to a few hundreds, but in some cases can be in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands (and very exceptionally millions) of pounds. The social media support group ‘Stop the US Army Dating Scam’ said that hundreds of women had been conned. Some sold their cars and re-mortgaged their homes.
Most of the romance scams still operate from Ghana and Nigeria, but the West African diaspora means that it has spread across the globe to far flung locations. The victims are usually prepared to suspend all disbelief, in the hope that a super good looking man has finally (and against all common sense), stepped into their lives.
The loss of dignity and self-worth, when the scam finally becomes clear to them (to say nothing of the poverty or debt it can leave them in) can result in suicides. Others, like Sarah in my original story, simply refuse to accept it’s a con, even when they are shown overwhelming evidence .... SOCA have reported cases of the fraudster finally admitting to his victim that “I know I’m a fraudster, but I still love you”, and as that was all the victim wanted to hear, she continued corresponding with him, and indeed kept sending him money until it all ran out.
In very extreme cases the victims become criminals themselves, money laundering across the globe on behalf of their Internet lover ..... so they can end up in prison, while their abuser gets usually gets away.
Some of the scammers make enough to 'reform', one man who now runs a ‘legitimate’ Internet marketing business in Nigeria, only does so because he made more than £50,000 from cheating unsuspecting Western women. He reported to the UK press that he knew of men who had made over £250k (a fortune in Nigeria) from the scams and that ‘Each person has as many as six women at a time. We would search through dating websites such as Yahoo! personal's, match.com and singlesnet.com and create an account'.
As this crime is a far more common con than I first realised, and if after reading this or the earlier story, your a UK resident and you think you’ve been a victim of fraud, then you should contact Action Fraud (www.actionfraud.org.uk, 0300 123 2040) for information on victim support.
There is also information about how to protect yourself against becoming a victim.
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| The Internet Hides A Lot Of Scams ..... |
In the UK, SOCA (the Serious Organised Crime Agency) has estimated that between £80m – £100m is taken from UK victims .... who are often too embarrassed or ashamed to approach the police or even tell their families. Typically the amounts are fairly modest from £50 to a few hundreds, but in some cases can be in the thousands, or hundreds of thousands (and very exceptionally millions) of pounds. The social media support group ‘Stop the US Army Dating Scam’ said that hundreds of women had been conned. Some sold their cars and re-mortgaged their homes.
Most of the romance scams still operate from Ghana and Nigeria, but the West African diaspora means that it has spread across the globe to far flung locations. The victims are usually prepared to suspend all disbelief, in the hope that a super good looking man has finally (and against all common sense), stepped into their lives.
The loss of dignity and self-worth, when the scam finally becomes clear to them (to say nothing of the poverty or debt it can leave them in) can result in suicides. Others, like Sarah in my original story, simply refuse to accept it’s a con, even when they are shown overwhelming evidence .... SOCA have reported cases of the fraudster finally admitting to his victim that “I know I’m a fraudster, but I still love you”, and as that was all the victim wanted to hear, she continued corresponding with him, and indeed kept sending him money until it all ran out.
In very extreme cases the victims become criminals themselves, money laundering across the globe on behalf of their Internet lover ..... so they can end up in prison, while their abuser gets usually gets away.
Some of the scammers make enough to 'reform', one man who now runs a ‘legitimate’ Internet marketing business in Nigeria, only does so because he made more than £50,000 from cheating unsuspecting Western women. He reported to the UK press that he knew of men who had made over £250k (a fortune in Nigeria) from the scams and that ‘Each person has as many as six women at a time. We would search through dating websites such as Yahoo! personal's, match.com and singlesnet.com and create an account'.
As this crime is a far more common con than I first realised, and if after reading this or the earlier story, your a UK resident and you think you’ve been a victim of fraud, then you should contact Action Fraud (www.actionfraud.org.uk, 0300 123 2040) for information on victim support.
There is also information about how to protect yourself against becoming a victim.
- The number one rule is don’t send any money. Not for anything or any reason.
- Don’t accept money or hand over your card or bank details. Not for anything or any reason.
- If you are using a dating website, use the designated area to chat. Never agree to leave that safe area and start emailing someone direct.
- Report any suspicions to both the site and the police, asap.
Take care out there ladies .... men are not that nice.
Thanks for the advice. I don't think I'll need it however as my friend is a real Nigerian princess who is already fabulously wealthy and just needs a few hundred pounds to get her fortune out of the country.
ReplyDeleteGood Luck with that .... LOL
Delete'I got this email from the Spanish Lottery yesterday. They just need €10,000 euro for legal fees and I get €20m. Of course I have never bought a ticket and I last went to Spain in 1987, but I am sure it's genuine .....'
ReplyDeleteWhat idiots some people really are. 'One born every minute' and 'a fool and their money' are soon parted, are proverbs that are just as true today.
Harsh but sadly both truisms are valid. Some people seem determined to lose their money one way or another and as I mentioned, blind 'greed' is one of the drivers. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteHowever stupid some victims insist on being, scamming remains a crime and should be addressed. If the easy targets cease to be then the scams would move into a higher gear netting some of the more skeptical. I heard that some scams have bad spelling intentionally to filter out the less gullible, I don't know if I beleeve that.
DeleteThings that tell you he’s a scammer:
ReplyDelete1. He’ll ask lots of questions about you, and you will be showered with compliments about your appearance and personality.
2. Transparency: Little is offered in terms of their own personal information, apart possibly from some tragic details like the death of a (fictional) wife or a sudden (fictional) medical condition.
3. Going offline: The fraudster will typically try to coax you off-line, away from the security of dating sites so that they can isolate you.
4. Contact: Any telephone contact may be from inappropriate location for the profile e.g. West Africa instead of USA. The voice/accent may not match the profile e.g. African instead of U.S.
5. Asking for money: Some weeks after initiating contact, they will start asking for money – possibly for a medical operation, to pay for a plane ticket or other travel expenses, to pay off gambling debts, or legal / bank administration fees. Small amounts initially, but with increasing frequency and amounts.
6. Payment Method:
(a). They usually want you to wire the money.
(b}. Or send via reload cards or gift cards from vendors like Amazon, Google Play etc, because they can get your cash quickly and remain anonymous. They also know that these type of transactions are almost impossible to reverse.
7. Never Quite Coming: They may say they they are on the verge of visiting, but then something always gets in the way - often a legal or medical emergency.
8. The Friend: They may well ask if you will meet a 'representative' or friend (This will be a member of the scam team), to hand over any cash. This person will invariably be of another race i.e. Black African.
Why you are a target:
1. Age Group: You are typically a white single female aged 45-65, with the money to make the scam worthwhile.
2. Love: You are looking for a long-term relationship and are possibly lonely.
3. Availability: You are willing to agree to go off-line and chat to them further.
4. Profile: You are looking for the type of person who they can fake a profile to e.g. a US soldier. They often say that they are working on an oil rig, are in the military, or are a doctor/diplomat with an international organisation such as the U.N.
5. Gullible: You are trusting, sympathetic and receptive to 'sob' stories – and therefore will be more likely to hand over your cash.
Don’t get conned:
1. Don’t ever chat offline or give out contact details, and always use the website which you have paid money for.
2. Search the web for photos of the person you are talking to. Contact the profile persons embassy to confirm if they are in military or work for U.N. etc
3. Search for key phrases in emails. The scams are often formulaic and being used on multiple women. So search for “oil rig scammer” or “US Army scammer.” There are scam lists available, such as this one.
4. If they ask for money, question them VERY closely and Ideally just accept that you have been targetted for a scam and block them ... a little bit wiser but not lost money. If you insist on carrying on, then if it is for a medical procedure, what hospital is the operation taking place in? Who is the doctor? Check the facts yourself e.g. Ring the hospital.
5. Talk to people. Tell others that you are talking to someone online. Tell them if you are asked for money. Listen to your friends fears.
6. If you have been of fear that you are a victim of a romance scam should call Action Fraud UK on 0300 123 2040 or contact the US Federal Trade Commission.