According to the law, a love scam is a criminal act that seeks to gain the trust of individuals in a dishonest way to extract money from them. In this text, we use the terms “con artist”, “fraudster”, “scammer” or “victim” without gender nor racial discrimination. We want to provide you with information to understand how to protect yourself from these love imposters.
While the subject of dating fraud is increasingly being criticized in the media around the world, the numbers are worrisome in our country. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, dating schemes cost Canadians an estimated $18.1 million in 2017, $22.5 million in 2018, and $18.3 million in 2019. The situation is even worse due to the fact that only 1 to 5% of cases are reported to the authorities.
These con artists often work in groups to target several individuals at once. Before contacting you, they have scoured your social networks to find out where you grew up, how many children you have, what movies you have seen and liked, etc. Before even contacting you, they are already over-informed with the objective of making you believe you share real affinities, such as your activities, preferences, supported causes and so on. These manipulators know exactly what to say and write to make their victim fall in love with them.
Most have stolen the identities of real people who are active on the web. They appropriate their photos and some personal information to create their persona in order to impersonate that individual. The rest of what they say is developed with the intention of seducing the targeted man and woman. These fraudsters operate from anywhere in the world; they almost always log on from a computer located in an Internet café so that they are difficult to trace. They manage to take astronomical sums of money from their victims, sometimes even ruining them if they do not end the relationship quickly enough.
The Techniques Fraudsters Often Use
The victim and the perpetrator establish contact on social networks or on a dating site. The perpetrator claims to live in a city far from the victim or even in another country. Conversations are mostly held via text, email or chat. Videoconferencing is rarely, if ever, used to preserve their false identity and to keep the deception going as long as possible. The photos offered, as well as the dreams and life stories told, are all lies. The ultimate goal is to make the victim feel strong emotions by making them believe in a close, intimate and privileged relationship.
In a matter of days or weeks, some of these scenarios could be used to quickly creep into a victim's life:
- The scammer has the money and has bought their plane ticket. At the last minute, the scammer announces that they are missing a visa, paper, form or signature to leave the country and that there are unexpected additional fees. The scammer then asks for a little money to settle the situation quickly. From there on, the problems continue, and they need more and more money to solve them. For example, the airline adds a fee for changing the flight, the employer cut their paid vacation days, the government has seized their bank account for an unpaid balance... In short, it never ends.
- The fraudster wants to meet with you but says they don't have the money for a plane ticket. So, they ask you to send them money to finance the trip.
- The scammer explains that they or a family member has a medical emergency. They need money to pay the doctor's bill, to pay for treatment, or to travel to the patient's bedside.
In short, this lover seems to have more bad luck than the average person. They deal with illness, emergency surgery, a car accident, the death of a loved one, a dismissal, a burglary, a plane crash, a kidnapping and so on. They will use any unimaginable situation to gain your sympathy for your urgent intervention and rescue. Your financial contribution will generally be done through Western Union or bank transfer. The fraudster may even ask you to deposit the cheque they will send you, but to send a portion of the money in the meantime. The cheque will be frozen by your banking institution, so you will continue to send funds until it is released. Inevitably, the cheque will bounce due to lack of funds.
Sharing Sexy Photos and Videos
Scammers have more than one way to extort money from their victims. One of the most common extortion techniques is blackmail.
Through calls, texts, emails and videoconferences, a bond of trust is created between the victim and the fraudster. A Facebook friend request will be sent to you and once accepted, the fraudster will have access to the list of your family members, friends, and colleagues. Then, during a slightly frivolous video discussion, it will be proposed to simultaneously perform a striptease. The victim is encouraged to adopt the same enticing and compromising gestures as the other person. The following day, the victim realizes that they have been filmed without consent when they receive the video of their performance, as well as the list of all their Facebook friends. To buy their silence, the victim is asked to pay several thousands of dollars, otherwise the video will be sent to all of their contacts.
A similar scenario occurs with sexual photos. The scammer builds up their victim's confidence by sending nude photos of themself and then proceeds to ask the victim to do the same. Once the photos are received, the scammer inevitably threatens to expose the photos if they do not immediately receive the required amount of money.
How to Protect Yourself
Here are a few clues that may alert you to a potential fraudster:
- Most dating scams are conducted through dating sites. If you are not registered with one of these sites and are contacted by email, do not respond. It's a 100% scam.
- The incorrect use of your first name in an e-mail is definitely a fraudulent message sent to multiple individuals at the same time. A communication that starts off with affectionate nicknames is a sign that it is targeted at several people and that the scammer wants to avoid mingling between their victims. So, don't be fooled by terms of endearment, such as honey, baby, treasure or other adjectives.
- You notice mistakes in different communications (a child's name, pet's name, destination, restaurant, etc.). This often occurs because it is not the same scammer who writes to you, rather other members of their organization.
- Your correspondent claims to be from your area but is currently working abroad. This is a common trick to ask you for money later. After all, they claim that when they return, they can easily pay you back.
- You rarely, if ever, see the individual in real time. Videos sent are always a few hours or days old.
- You are asked for money. Save yourself!
- You have doubts about the image of the individual. It is now possible to search by image through certain search engines, such as Bing and Google. This feature allows you to recognize identical or similar images. If the person is not who they say they are, look no further: you are dealing with a scammer.
If you believe you are a victim of a love scam, stop all communication and block the fraudster’s number and email address. Should a predator succeed in infiltrating the Tandem Effect community, we invite you to contact our customer service as quickly as possible. That way, we can react accordingly.
You can also report the crime to the following organizations:
- Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, 1-888-495-8501
- Crime Victims Assistance Centre (CAVAC), 1-866-532-2822.
