Be careful if an online acquaintance wants to build a romantic relationship with you - it could be a romance scam.

The police are currently warning about fraudsters who feign a romantic relationship:

Love Scamming” or “Romance Scamming” is like a kind of love scam in the digital world. The victim is led to believe that a romantic relationship has developed or existed through frequent messaging (contact exchanges, messenger services, email). The victim becomes emotionally dependent on the fraudster, even though there was never direct contact.

Promises are often not kept. Because of the emotional dependence, the victim falls for the perpetrator and does everything to avoid losing his favor. The deceived person transfers several amounts of money to the perpetrator over a longer period of time.

[mk_ad]

An almost 60-year-old woman from the Giessen district also had this experience. In May 2019, she met a supposedly French man who lived in Siegen via two internet portals. The victim had so much trust in the man that she transferred several amounts of money to France and gave French money coupons to the fraudster. After she had entrusted him with a total of 8,600 euros, contact broke off.

A few days ago, the alleged Frenchman got in touch again and asked to open an online account. He stated that he wanted to transfer the money back to her. However, the victim had in the meantime seen the picture of her supposed “boyfriend” with a different name on another internet contact site. She then suspected that she had fallen victim to a perfidious scam and filed a report.

[mk_ad]

Don't be afraid to call the police if you have any doubts or have already fallen for a scam. The police will provide you with advice and support.

How do I behave if I have been cheated on?

  • Break off contact and use the options available to block a scammer.
  • If you have already responded to the fraudsters' demands, they will be very persistent: therefore, consistently ignore any further attempts to contact them.
  • Save all correspondence with the fraudsters and have all transfer receipts etc. on file.
  • Contact your police in confidence and file a criminal complaint.

Further information can also be found at www.polizei-beratung.de

Related to the topic: Romance Scam: Beware of greedy Internet acquaintances!

Source: Central Hesse Police
Article image: Shutterstock / From Pixel-Shot


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )