Romance Scams

A romance scam is a form of advance fee fraud and occurs when a person pretends to be romantically interested in someone who is looking for love or friendship on an internet dating or social media site, in order to obtain financial gain.  The scammers target any age but those aged in particular between 35-70, which includes disabled and disadvantaged people.  There are usually several people involved in a romance scam (particularly University students) that are networking between the globe e.g.  Nigeria, Turkey, UK, US, Australia and Malaysia.  They may use phone numbers starting with Nigerian country code +234 and redirect to anywhere in the world phone numbers +4470, and +13 and VOIP numbers to appear like they are in that country.

Scammers create, copy and paste photos of attractive women, wealthy businessman or individuals from various professions across the internet and present these fake profiles to lure in their victims.   They use poetic scripts to play the role of the romantic, sweet, kind, caring and considerate lover.  They like to follow a story or script because they can remain consistent and reduce the amount of contradictions that can create doubt because it is several people talking to one victim at any one time.  The victims feels that they have found the partner of their dreams and the person they want to spend the rest of their life with and will go to great lengths to be with the one they love. 

Once the emotional attachment is strong, the scammer claims misfortune in some manner – a car accident, a mugging, a hospital in-patient, loss of wallet and paperwork, money needed for their business, sick mother, sick child needs medical bills paid, birthday gifts, tuition fees or their hotel was burnt down with all their paperwork and belongings now destroyed.  They will appear forlorn and encourage the victim to help them financially by making a money transfer through one of the major money movers like Western Union or MoneyGram or own bank account and ask that it be kept quiet for fear of embarrassment to the victim’s family upon meeting them.  They may also request cryptocurrency transfers such as Bitcoin and will walk the victim through the steps to create an online wallet or join a cryptocurrency platform to deposit and transfer the coins.

The victim feels uncomfortable at the speed of the developing relationship pace but develops a strong emotional attachment to their sweet words of love. Family members may become alarmed when they discover financial transactions taking place and become critical of the developing relationship. The relationship tends to becomes secretive and a triangle develops between the victim, the manipulative scammer and the victim’s family. The scammer will attack disapproval by introducing doubt and will answer with a question or just drop out of the communication if confronted.  Most victims find it hard to resist the pull towards the scammers seduction due to the heavy pattern of romantic attention the scammer has created and many will lose financially before their illusion is broken resulting in a physical, spiritual and emotional breakdown.

A romance scammer will use any type of communication to carry the scam such as Facebook, WhatsApp, email, phone text, prayer sites, dating sites, Yahoo Groups, forums – some portraying themselves as victims of scams. police or political representatives and military personnel.  They may also use various languages to target new marks.

Drug Scams

A variation of the romance scam involves drug scams and the following people have been or are now incarcerated in foreign prisons having been used by drug cartels as mules.  The following innocent people have been jailed for being a victim of a romance scam.

Sharon Armstrong – 4 years 10 months imprisonment in 2011 in Argentina. Released.

Antony De Malmanche – 15 years imprisonment – Kerobokan – to be released in December 2028

Maria Exposto – Sentenced to death by hanging and escaped death penalty after 5 years in Malaysia. Released.

Roy Arbon – Imprisoned in Western Australia 2016 – Released.

John Warwick –  Died in custody 2014 – Guangzhou China

Paul Frampton – 4 years 8 months imprisonment – Argentina. Released.

Numerous individuals affected by romance and advance fee fraud drug scams go unnoticed by the media. You will be arrested and charged for drug trafficking even if you are unaware there are drugs in your bag.

If you have any of the signs below – you are dealing with a deceptive online profile

They have asked you for a money transfer and you have not yet met them in person = scam.
They encourage you in any way to beg, borrow or steal for them – this includes questioning loan approvals, checking if transfers have been made and asking how much your friend can loan you.
They send you an airline ticket to meet them overseas – DANGER – you are being set up for a drug scam – your flight may be redirected by the scammer shortly prior to your destination and if you are caught with drugs travelling through China or Indonesia you may be looking at long term imprisonment or the death penalty with high legal costs to your distraught family.
You have no solid proof that they exist.

They drop out of messenger, logging in or changing status or leaving strange status messages.
They become overly defensive or vague when you question their behaviour.
Their emails seem like they may have been copied from a poetry site.  
The majority of your communication is received and sent by text – i.e. email, messenger.
When you ask for more photos, they delay your request or send you photos of a slightly different person.
They refuse to webcam by making excuses that their equipment does not work or they will use advanced technology to create a person that looks real.
They send you their private email address of yahoo and Hotmail in their first contact with you and ask you to go to IM to chat rather than chat through the dating site.
They introduce themselves with full name, Christian and surname.
They are self-employed – traveling overseas and headed towards Africa or Malaysia. They may be working off shore on an oil rig.
They are widowers with children or divorced with child because their ex cheated on them or partner died.
They have asked that you purchase a laptop or mobile phone or even open a bank account or social media account for them.
They are requesting money urgently because they have lost their wallet, their hotel burned down, they had an unfortunate accident and ended up in hospital?
They are asking you to help them with money to pay their hotel bills, and/or medical costs.
They are wealthy and yet request money from you to fund their business venture or day to day living costs.
They have requested Western Union transfer or MoneyGram or cryptocurrency transfers.
They have asked you to make payment through gift cards by requesting the card number and PINs to release payment. E.g. iTunes, Google Play, Amazon
They may refuse your offer to purchase an airfare ticket from your local travel agent.
They have sent you a copy of the e ticket, itinerary, boarding pass or flight confirmation.
They have a distinctive or unusual accent that differs from what is expected in their presumed home country. They may justify this by stating their parents had diverse nationalities or their parents were mixed nationalities or they have resided in various parts of the world.
They avoid meeting you by not arriving at the airport.

They will give you a post code unrelated to the address they have requested money to be sent to.
They have contacted you through Facebook and their profile looks new without friends on their friend list or there may be a few people that appear to be the same gender.

If you are experiencing more than one of the above signs, you are being scammed. If you have been sent money to buy an airline ticket, you are being set up by a drug syndicate as a mule.  Please contact us for assistance.

If you have been instructed to transfer funds from your bank account to redirect them to another individual, you are being exploited as a money mule. Being unaware of the illegal nature of the money transfer may not necessarily be a defence and you can be prosecuted.

Please contact us for assistance.