It's not just men who receive friend requests from dubious profiles with sexy pictures. Women also often receive dubious friend requests from men.
We keep getting requests from concerned Facebook users that go something like this:
“Hello, I keep getting friend requests from strange men.
Mostly from the USA or Morocco etc. There are usually pictures that suggest that they belong to the army, but in terms of appearance and name they are more American or English. Have you heard about it yet? It can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
That's right, that's no coincidence!
These are so-called romance or love scammers .
This scam differs from the female pedant on Facebook: While the female profiles want to lure men to sex portals, the male profiles feign trust and later love in order to steal money. This method is more tedious, but brings more money to scammers. In 2016, was cheated out of a total of 40,000 euros, which she sent to a supposedly widowed American so that he and his 17-year-old son could move to Germany with her.
The police themselves have tips and advice on how to recognize such scammers and how you should behave:
How do I recognize a romance or love scammer?
At the point of contact
Scammers get email addresses via networks or dating sites. A brief email in English with an invitation to chat serves as a lure . Since the scammers often work with German email addresses, it is rarely obvious that there is a scammer behind the nice lines. Stay away from chat names with unusual characters (e.g. percent signs) - these send software with your messages that can harm the computer.
On the language
The scammers usually communicate in good English . Insiders assume that around 95 percent of English-speaking contacts on German dating sites are romance or love scammers. However, there are also many who perfect German .
On the pictures
Scam women prefer to lure their victims with beautiful photos in which they are often scantily clad, while scam men often use photos of uniformed men.
On the content of the emails
After the first contact, scammers bombard their victims with long letters full of bombastic vows of love . They are easy to recognize by their exuberant declarations of love and expressions of love. But there is another way: emails that appear serious should arouse interest. Scammers often want to know everything about their victim : hobbies, former partners, children, friends, and belief in God always plays a role. Important: The scammers soon refer to their new partners as “husband” or “wife” and make marriage plans. That's why the request for a visa or a joint account seems justified.
On connections to West Africa/Russia/Southeast Asia
Whether it's a business trip or family problems , there are many reasons for a connection to Nigeria, Ghana, etc. Women, on the other hand, often live in Eastern European / Southeast Asian / South American countries.
To requests for money / visa / sending parcels or letters / joint account
There are many reasons to ask the victim for money. If they refuse to send money, fraudsters will find other ways. This includes forged checks that are supposed to be deposited in Germany. At the moment there is a strong desire to be invited to Germany. Here the fraudsters not only want to live at the expense of their victims, but also continue to work on behalf of the Nigeria Connection. The fraudsters also manage to cleverly abuse the victims for their own purposes , for example by sending them letters or packages to third parties. Scam women often beg for invitations to Germany. The fraudsters often pretend to want to open a joint account with the victim and ask for copies of ID cards . The data is used to forge passports.
Tip:
Enter the name of your internet acquaintance with the addition “Scammer” into Google, for example. In many cases, the search engine can confirm suspicions. If you were sent an image, you can use reverse image search to get additional information about the image.
It also makes sense that you use an alternative email address for online contact exchanges or for digital correspondence with a stranger. This way you can avoid having to delete your main email account in the event of fraud.
What to do if I've been scammed?
To block
Immediately break off all contact . Stop accepting emails and calls from scammers. It is best to get a new email address and telephone number. There is also a risk for friends in the social network and for all contacts in your own email address book. The perpetrators usually also send a computer virus with their emails. This scans the data in the email address book and also allows other control over the victim's computer.
To ignore
Do not respond to the scammer’s demands. Under no circumstances should you transfer money , cash checks or forward letters and packages - nor do you keep them. Reverse payments made immediately, if possible.
To back up
Save all emails and chat texts as evidence on a storage medium such as your preferred cloud service, an external hard drive, a USB stick or a CD-ROM . Keep transfer receipts etc. If you can't do it yourself, have computer-savvy friends and acquaintances read the so-called email header for you. This shows you where the email was sent from. Self-help sites on the Internet also explain how you can protect yourself from greater damage.
to get help
Go to the police . Prosecuting such perpetrators is extremely difficult because they operate from abroad. However, you should definitely report the incident. This is particularly important if, for example, banks want to take criminal action against victims who unknowingly submitted forged checks.
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