Instead of finding true love, a 54-year-old was left with only great financial damage: The man from the Borken district lost a five-figure sum in euros - the money went into Russian accounts.
False love – the most important thing to start with:
- Fraudsters are ripping off 54-year-olds.
- So-called romance scammers pretend to be someone else and form a bond of trust with their victim. It's not uncommon for them to feign love.
- After some time they ask for money.
The 54-year-old had made contact with a Russian woman via a social network on the Internet. But it wasn't just an exchange of messages: the woman asked for money.
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She was always able to give seemingly good reasons for it. Sometimes it was about the costs of a medical emergency for the chat partner's mother, sometimes about an arrest and security, and finally about financing the woman's flight to Germany. The man made a total of four transfers before he suspected the fraud.
In order to lull him into security, the recipient of the money came up with a few ideas. She also sent him supposed identification data. But in the end all that was left for the person concerned was the bitter realization that strangers had manipulated his feelings in order to get his money.
Scamming
The actions of the perpetrators in this case are nothing unknown to the investigators of the Borken criminal investigation department. Experts refer to this as so-called “scamming”: the supposed path to happiness leads through advance payments to a fraudster, or “scammer”.
A variant of this: love or romance scamming. The fraudsters search for possible victims on online dating sites and social networks. The first contact is followed by a phase of intense expressions of love. The perpetrators thus lay the psychological foundation to be able to successfully ask for money in the next step. The fraudsters are inventive when it comes to describing supposed emergencies.
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Unfortunately, the victims don't quickly become suspicious at this point. Because the perpetrators deliberately made her emotionally dependent. Such cases often last over a long period of time. This is also the case in the current example: the fraudsters managed to maintain the fake relationship with the 54-year-old for around six months.
The police strongly warn against this scam. https://www.polizei-beratung.de/themen-und-tipps/betrug/scamming/ describes how the perpetrators proceed in detail, how they can be identified and what those affected should do .
Related to the topic: Romance Scam: Beware of greedy Internet acquaintances!
Source: Borken District Police Authority
Article image: Shutterstock / From Pixel-Shot
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