This is nothing to do with stupidity, but you can be at risk of falling victim to a romantic scam, online fraud experts warn. Nigerian cyberfraudsters, best known for their online romance scams, are now working with much more sophistication, they say. While there is no shortage of scams on the internet, few are more devastating than those in Nigeria, where fraudsters set up profiles on dating websites and scam vulnerable people in search of love. This includes sending a large sum of money to someone abroad and explaining that, because of government restrictions, they cannot access it, no matter where they live.
Nigerian young men are using the internet as a universe to rip off unsuspecting customers with romance, gold, and business fraud. While it seems like the outcome can only be a broken heart – that isn’t quite true.
An FBI memo this week said that dating and love tricks are about recruiting “money mules.” Yes – the gig is exactly what it sounds like. The use of “mule” scammers is extremely common, as is the case with the business email compromise scam, where fraudsters trick companies into making bank transfers to accounts opened by mule victims. The mule is used to transfer money without the scammers having to get their hands dirty.
If you find out that your online romance is really about a scammer, report it to the website you’ve come across through the Federal Trade Commission by going to https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov and clicking on the “Fraud and Rip Off” tab. If you know you have fallen victim to a romance scam You can file a complaint with the FTC at www.FTCComplaintAssistance.com.
In even more surprising cases, victims know they have been scammed but are still in love with the fraudsters and still transfer money. The scam can last for months, with the person offering the scammer an increased chance of asking for something different each time, the FBI has said.
Caring for potential victims of love scams is just the tip of the iceberg, and there is no shortage of people who have fallen for them. After all, there is no reason to believe that fraudsters have limited their fraud activities to love-affair scams. Many of them are highly skilled at the “art” – why restrict themselves to only one format?
One victim had $50,000 worth of smuggled paper cash sent to her partner in Nigeria. The fraudster then sent bank checks to transfer possession of things such as cars and expensive electronics to individuals all around Nigeria.
Victims cannot believe that the scammer has been conducting Internet chats for months, only to earn thousands each month, likely paychecks larger than their victim’s, and in Nigeria, that dollar goes farther, nearly doubling the amount in the transfer.
Don’t be fooled though, it isn’t only grandma being scammed at home. Scammers have been known to send custom phishing emails to your company to trick someone into clicking on a link and infecting their computer with malware. Anyone who has this email may be at risk of receiving an email from the Nigerian prince or from anyone else who is connected to a recently deceased prince in Nigeria – they’re about to be a millionaire, after all.
If you find out that your online romance is really about a scammer, report it to the website you’ve come across through the Federal Trade Commission by going to https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov and clicking on the “Fraud and Rip Off” tab. If you know you have fallen victim to a romance scam You can file a complaint with the FTC at www.FTCComplaintAssistance.com.