Beware of Romance Scams
Beware of Romance Scams
The latest online scam is targeting lonely people looking for love. International online con-artists, pretending to be looking for love, have stolen tens of millions from unsuspecting admirers. According to MSNBC, this scam takes time and commitment from the bad guys. First they randomly instant-message people in chat-rooms. If someone answers back, they draw them in and tell them what they want to hear. Their goal is to isolate the person from their family and friends by getting them to spend all their time online. They’ll have four or five people working as a team, pretending to be the new love interest, so they can keep the person chatting around the clock. Once they’re hooked, the requests for money start rolling in.
Jim Arlt is an FBI agent who specializes in scams. He says the con-artist forces the person to spend so much time interacting with them that it’s actually a form of mind control. They’re essentially brainwashed and the bond that’s created is almost impossible to break. One woman let her house go into foreclosure and destroyed her relationship with her family because she insisted in sending over ten-thousand dollars to a scammer in Nigeria. Another victim cashed out his retirement fund and sent over a million dollars to an online con-artist who had spent a year seducing him, and a woman was so engrossed in chatting with a scammer that she ignored cries for help from her mother who was having a heart attack. When she finally got off the computer she found her mother dead.
So how can you help if you know someone who’s being targeted? The experts say a head-on confrontation usually doesn’t work. The con-artist has convinced the victim that their family and friends are out to destroy their happiness, so anything you say will be ignored. Instead find the scammer on a victim’s support site like RomanceScams.org. You can find pictures that scammers have sent and stories from other victims. If a story matches up with their experience, they may snap out of it. If the situation gets completely out of hand, go talk to a lawyer. If the person is totally under the scammers control you may have to get a power of attorney to stop them from sending any more money. If you know someone who’s being conned, that website is RomanceScams.org.