Romance scammers don't sleep

The love business is also doing frighteningly well on the Internet. Above all, the Internet offers anonymity, which a fraudster knows how to use wisely.

We repeatedly receive messages from predominantly female users who point us to profiles of so-called romance scammers.

Hello dear Mimikama team, apparently the Romance Scan story never sleeps.
A so-called Mark Sorensen from the USA wrote to me. Allegedly US soldier stationed in Iraq. Supposedly has a German Shepherd etc...the parents died in an attack and so on. The photos used are originally from Jeff Sorensen, who also has an account on Instagram (even the Jeff Sorensen page, apart from the normal profile page, is probably fake). I accepted the friend request just for fun but limited it to completely. He wanted to write directly via Google Hangouts because Facebook apparently doesn't work well in the "camp" and he isn't online there that often. Maybe this can be used to help women who might fall for such a scam. Unfortunately there are certainly enough of them. Best regards

There is still a need for clarification on this topic. Just recently, a 62-year-old woman fell into the clutches of a romance scammer who cheated her out of a five-figure euro amount, according to the Bavarian police .

What is Romance Scam Exactly?

The word “scam” means “to deceive” in German. Literally, this is about romance scammers: Facebook profiles that pretend to be a young man, usually an American, who is in military service, has “stumbled upon” a profile and is interested in the user’s profile. However, after a short time the interest shifts more towards financial matters.

How do I recognize a romance scam?

In our article Romance Scam – Detecting and Preventing, colleague Ralf describes the following criteria:

Distinguishing feature #1: The friends list

Lonely looks different: Such profiles have a full friend list of between 100 and 300 people, at least 95% of which are women, mostly middle-aged. The female friends are often from different parts of the USA, often also from Asia.

Distinguishing feature No. 2: He is a soldier

There are countless images of US soldiers posting selfies on various social platforms. Romance scammers often use this huge pool to make their profile appear authentic. In addition, someone who serves as a US soldier apparently automatically comes across as serious and honest to many women.

Distinctive feature #3: Things get emotional

While female fake profiles get straight to the point with male users (SEX), romance scammers take a more subtle approach: They quickly tell a touching story in the course of a chat:

„I'm a single father of a lovely son, l lost my wife and my lovely daughter 5 years ago in a ghastly motor accident when my son was 9years old and my daughter 7 years old, since then l have been going through emotional pain. “

Basically, these scammers have a small child and are single parents. In this way, there is also an emphasis on pity, like “This handsome young man, who lost his wife so early, is in the military and takes care of his child!”

Distinguishing feature #4: He's in Africa

US soldiers are stationed all over the world. So it will come as no surprise that a scammer will say during a chat that they are currently stationed in Africa. This is important in order to make the scammer's following actions appear credible!

Distinctive feature #5: He needs money

At this point at the latest, affected users should break off contact at all levels.
Because it starts with small amounts, but increases! In a recent case that a user described to us, the man wanted 200 pounds so he could talk to her on the phone.
Surprise, the money was supposed to go to a Western Union account in Africa. In fact, the user and the scammer had previously spoken via Google Hangouts, and she noticed two things: 1. He always had problems turning on his webcam
2. He had an African accent

But it gets even worse: In subsequent cases, larger sums are demanded because he usually wants to get out of the military in order to move in with the user with his son.

Where do these romance scammers come from?

These people are not isolated people, but actually part of a more or less organized crime group, the so-called “ Nigeria Connection ”.
These are groups of African fraudsters. Some of these scammers also live in Europe and others in Nigeria and specialize in credit card fraud, document forgery and much more. specialized.

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 keep all transfer receipts etc.
• Contact your police in confidence and file a criminal complaint.