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The rip-off has it all. It's about hundreds of thousands of euros that lonely women in love transfer to online acquaintances who don't even exist. Because in reality, your savings end up with professional love scammers abroad. Young men who make real money with fake love. SPIEGEL TV reporters Tatjana Kurdjumow and Steffen Vogel followed the money trail to Ghana and met women in Germany who had lost everything.
How do I recognize a romance or love scammer?
1. When contacting us:
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.
2. 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 speak perfect German.
3. 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.
4. The content of the emails:
After the first contact, scammers bombard their victims with lengthy 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.
5. For 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.
6. For 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?
– Block the person
– Ignore requests
– Secure evidence
– Get help: Report this to your police.
Source: YouTube / Spiegel TV
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 )