Online dating used be a taboo topic and a past-time few people would admit to taking part in; in 2000, around 100,000 people had dating profiles. Sixteen years later and that number is more like 7.8 million.
Online dating fraud cost victims £27 million last year https://t.co/tjZM5UfJyp
— Action Fraud (@actionfrauduk) February 11, 2016
A report by Action Fraud, operated by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau revealed that single people looking for love online were conned out of $US33 million by romance scammers operating on the internet in 2016.
"Romance scams are one of the top mass marketing frauds committed in the UK, US and Australia — and I suspect they will be for some time," Professor Monica Whitty, cyber-psychology and security expert at Warwick University told Sputnik.
Why do victims fall for online romance scam? https://t.co/dTdW5H2jxo pic.twitter.com/Mc5rYlHkYb
— Cyber Criminology (@CyberCrminology) January 31, 2017
"Criminals set up profiles on online dating sites and social networking sites and groom people into thinking they are in an exclusive and intimate relationship. Then they manage to scam them out of very large amounts of money. Victims sometimes remortgage their homes," Professor Whitty explained.
She suggested that romance scamming is "hard for the police to investigate," because the perpetrators are tricky to trace and victims are reluctant to come forward, "because of the shame and embarrassment."
"They often blame themselves and feel stupid and don't want to admit to their friends or family that they've been scammed online."
However the victims aren't necessarily stupid — the scammers are sophisticated and patient and once they have tapped into the victim's vulnerability it's likely that the scammers will return.
Will you be using an online dating website this valentines day? Here are some tips https://t.co/Fw5bAavSYT #ValentinesDay pic.twitter.com/kIB1TKh2NK
— UK ECC (@UKECC) February 9, 2017
"In a virtual world, it's easier for victims to believe the relationship with the fraudster is deep and meaningful. If they were to meet that person face to face, they'd probably come to a different conclusion," Professor Whitty told Sputnik.
The average online dating fraud victim loses £10,000 — it costs people in the UK 27 million a year #CapitalReports pic.twitter.com/AQnNyv0SGw
— Capital Wirral News (@CapitalWIRNews) February 11, 2016
"But online they get groomed into these scams and it's hard to leave — and often they're contacted again by other scammers as their details have been shared on a 'sucker's list.'"
So Long Suckers
This is a list of vulnerable people who are susceptible to being scammed and therefore, valuable to online criminals.
"These lists are then sold to other criminals on the dark net," Professor Whitty said.
"My research suggests that a quarter of victims who are mass-scammed and re-scammed, so these sucker's lists are worth a lot of money and a valuable commodity for online fraudsters."
