Love Scamming

Love scamming: An overview of essential information

For operators of online dating platforms and social networks, so-called love scamming is a major problem.

In this digital version of the marriage scam, criminals try to gain the trust of a person who is looking for new contacts online – of course with the sole intention of obtaining their personal data and money.

In order to be effective against love scamming and to better protect potential victims in advance, secure identity authentication is essential.

What is love scamming or romance scamming?

Love or romance scamming is a scam in which fraudsters, known as love scammers, systematically seek out their victims via online dating platforms or social networks.

The scam is based on a fake profile that is usually very professionally constructed, complete with attractive pictures, an appealing description of personal and professional attributes, and an apparently cosmopolitan, open character.

In a romance scam, the love scammers try to establish an intense online relationship with their victim as fast as possible and to create an emotional dependency in the person concerned. They specifically target single or older people, and women are particularly often affected by love scamming.

Love scammers follow a pattern: this is how they proceed

The digital form of the marriage scam is very similar to its analog predecessor: the scammers exploit lonely people for their fraudulent purposes and always follow the same pattern when romance scamming:

1. Seemingly harmless initial contact

At the beginning, the romance scammer usually starts with a completely harmless exchange of messages and pretends to be genuinely interested in the victim’s life. They like to use words with a romantic connotation in their seemingly profound questions.

2. Sharing of information designed to inspire trust

Love scammers are very generous with supposedly private information – most of which is completely fictitious. They often make up stories about serious misfortunes.

3. Love scammers promise eternal love

Depending on how ‘well’ the victim falls for the love scam, talk of eternal love and even marriage can quickly follow. After all, the aim of a romance scam is to create a strong emotional dependency in the victim as quickly as possible.

4. The romance scammer’s dramatic plea for help

As soon as this emotional dependency has been established, the love scammer claims to have got into a dramatic emergency situation that makes a personal meeting in real life impossible.

And love scammers are extremely creative here – always with the aim of getting as much money as possible from the scammed victim: sometimes it’s a credit card that was stolen abroad and the corresponding lack of money for a plane ticket, which is why a meeting with the victim is impossible. Or there is a family emergency or the supposedly own company has run into trouble.

If the victim pays the requested money, the romance scammer usually tries to get even more money – often enough over a longer period. The victims hardly have a chance of ever seeing their money again.

Fast reaction is important when it comes to love scams

If the fraud is noticed, any contact should be stopped immediately. Before doing so, however, victims should back up all correspondence with the love scammer to have important evidence for reporting the crime to the police.

How to recognize an online love scam

There are several warning signs that can clearly indicate an online romance or love scam.

1. This is how a love scammer’s online profile may appear

Romance scammers repeatedly create new profiles. Therefore, you should take a close look at the profile: if the profile is relatively new and the scammer has hardly any friends, this is a strong warning sign for a potential love scam.

2. How romance scammers represent themselves

Love or romance scammers appear to be quite attractive in profile pictures on social networks or dating sites. The pictures often show only the scammer himself in high-quality clothing, with expensive vehicles and other gadgets – but without other people. This is to suggest wealth in order to gain the trust and interest of the victim.

3. How love scammers communicate to build a relationship

In a love scam, the fraudsters try to establish a close relationship in the shortest possible time in an extremely charming way and quickly talk about love and marriage. In many cases, the love scammers communicate in English or broken German, as love scammers often operate from abroad.

4. How romance scammers scout out their victims

Love scammers immediately try to obtain detailed information about their victims’ life situation, such as relationships, possible children, friends and relatives: the fewer social contacts a potential victim has, the higher the chances of success.

5. How fraudsters arouse pity in a romance scam

As soon as their intended victim has fallen into their emotional trap, love scammers like to tell them about the oh-so-difficult strokes of fate in their lives – both private and professional.

6. When love scammers ask for money, they’re on the home stretch

When romance scamming, the question of money comes up sometimes directly, sometimes subtly – but it comes up! And basically, the scammers promise to reimburse the large sums as quickly as possible.

How companies can protect users from love scamming

Studies show that the risk of internet fraud can be reduced with a mandatory authentication of users by up to 50% – one more reason to use high-quality and secure identification solutions, especially in online dating portals and social media networks, where romance scamming is particularly common.

With mandatory user authentication, suspicious users can be identified, excluded if necessary and/or referred for criminal prosecution.

 

WebID, as a pioneer in the field, has already reliably and securely identified more than 21 million customers with a comprehensive portfolio of innovative identification solutions – such as VideoID or AutoID. Companies can use this expertise to also improve protection against love scamming and other fraud methods in social media networks and online dating portals