The past days I was „taking part“ in a so called romance scam attack.
What’s romance scam or love scam in a few words? People are finally trying to get money from you pretending love or disasters. This kind of attack is happening increasingly often on dating platforms and even (in my case) business platforms.
How does it look like? Have a look at this shortened, anonymized protocols (including some notes and hints from my side):
So what are the main indicators of a romance / love scam?
- The messages are getting emotional very quickly and very intense. The people seem to be interested in your daily and private life
- The people seem to be located in another country or some place which is very hard to visit
- The people are trying to raise sympathy by mentioning disasters or other (financial) pitfalls
- The images used are showing beautiful people trying to get attraction
- The people are asking for money or other benefits very quickly
What can you do it you experiencing something similar (and maybe some situation which is slightly more subtle than this one)?
- First, never trust anyone without some proof or another
- Never, never send private oder personal data to those people (like your government ID, bank account numbers, etc.)
- Use the Google image reverse search for images, photos (very often image are taking from public profiles somewhere)
Is romance / love scam a crime?
- Fake profiles are no crime, but inform the platforms as soon as possible so these profiles can be deleted
- Create a log or screen shots from any conversation
- Using fake profiles for fraud is a crime indeed, if you are a victim inform the police about your case and hand over all the information you got!!!