It all starts with a flirt on the Internet, you quickly get on the same wavelength and the sympathy grows. The online relationship becomes more serious. Emails are exchanged over weeks or months, people reveal more and more personal things and think they have true love in front of them. The person you love is attentive, educated and also has an interesting life story.

All that's missing is the longed-for personal meeting. But actually getting to know each other is made dependent on a money transfer, either for the visa or for the purchase of a plane ticket, or there is an ad hoc emergency. A close relative is ill, only an expensive operation can help, or valuables and passport have been stolen and the hotel bill is outstanding.

The fact is: the perpetrators only care about the money; a real personal connection was and is never intended.

Contacts are made with the victims via social networks and a basis of trust is built. An emergency situation is then invented that triggers pity among those affected. The victims then trustfully transfer money, for example via Western Union, to Ghana, Nigeria, the USA, Great Britain, Turkey or even Russia. Internet acquaintances with Russia are supposedly women who want to get married, who then rip off the men.

Research by the State Criminal Police Office in the Saxony police information system revealed 412 cases for 2021. This also includes cases that already occurred in 2020 but were only reported in 2021.

275 of these 412 cases registered by the police (66.7 percent) were completed and caused total damage of around 4.2 million euros. This means that the number of completed cases has fallen compared to 2020 (304 completed cases), but this decline had no impact on the amount of damage incurred. This has been on a continuous upward trend since 2017. (2017 – 1.6 million, 2018 – 2.7 million, 2019 – 3.6 million; 2020 – 4 million)

With a share of 57.4 percent of the total number of victims, women were affected more often than men. Overall, it can be seen that both younger and older people have become victims of “love romance scamming”. Almost 68 percent of those injured are in the 40 to 69 age group.

A total of 100 suspects were identified, 55 men and 45 women. Of these, most people (44) have German citizenship, followed by suspects from Nigeria and Ghana. When looking at the age structure of the 100 suspects identified, most of them (78.0 percent) are in the age range of 21 to 60 years old.

Many victims are ashamed to report this scam.

Unfortunately, the perpetrators also know this. The police therefore always try to provide preventive information and make cases known in an exemplary manner.

But how can you recognize so-called love scamming and protect yourself from it?

  • Scammers get email addresses via networks or dating sites. A brief email in English with an invitation to chat serves as a lure.
  • The scammers usually communicate in good English. However, there are also many who speak perfect German.
  • Victims are often shown poor quality images of their online acquaintances because they were obtained illegally. Exception: Women prefer to lure their victims with beautiful photos in which they are often lightly dressed.
  • Serious-looking emails arouse interest, but after a short time the scammers shower their victims with vows of love. They want to know everything about their victim: hobbies, former partners, children, friends, faith in God also plays a role.
  • The perpetrators then often talk about business trips or family difficulties and a connection to West Africa such as Nigeria, Ghana or Senegal, but also to Russia and Southeast Asia. Women often claim to live in Eastern European, Southeast Asian or South American countries.
  • Scammers ask their victims for money for a variety of reasons. If they refuse to pay, the fraudsters look for other ways to enrich themselves. The scammers do not shy away from using extortionist methods and even threaten suicide. For example, checks (which are, however, forged) are to be paid in Germany or letters or packages are to be sent to third parties. The fraudsters ask for copies of IDs and use this data for further fraudulent activities.
  • If you actually have doubts about your online acquaintance, you should confide in a friendly but neutral person and discuss the topic and your newfound “love” and get an additional unbiased opinion.
  • In addition, in many cases a search engine can confirm suspicions if you enter the name of the internet acquaintance with the addition of “scammer”.
  • There is also the option of entering the photo of the internet acquaintance into the Google image search. If the picture or the person in it is then found with different names on different sites, it can be assumed that this photo is being misused and the profile could be fake.

What can you do if you have fallen victim to a scammer?

  • Never accept the scammers' demands, do not transfer money to strangers, do not cash checks for them, forward letters or packages, and do not keep them.
  • If possible, reverse payments that have been made.
  • Back up all emails and chat texts and keep transfer receipts.
  • Report the matter to the police, as the authorities cannot take action without the appropriate report and procedures.
  • Cut off all contact with the scammer. If you ignore emails or calls, get a new email address and phone number if necessary.

Further information can be found here at Police Advice .

Source: Saxony Police

Also read: Love scam, romance scam or also: cheating with your feelings


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