Victims of romance scammers often wait too long to report the matter to the police
Within a week, the police in MV reported two cases in which women had transferred large sums of money to online acquaintances. The victims were in contact with the fraudsters for over a year. This makes the investigation even more difficult.
For over a year they wrote to each other regularly and several times a day via a messenger service. However, there was never any personal contact or meeting. Nevertheless, the 57-year-old from Ribnitz-Damgarten's feelings for her online acquaintance were so great that she even ended up mortgaging her house.
The woman in MV transferred over 90,000 euros to her online love and was also persuaded to forward amounts of money. The person who was actually deceived thereby made herself liable to prosecution. She is now being investigated on suspicion of money laundering.
The chances of the investigation being successful are slim
As in many other cases of so-called love scamming, the investigators consider the chances of identifying the true identity behind the online acquaintance and thus a suspect to be low, as the spokeswoman for the police headquarters in Neubrandenburg, Caroline Kohl, reports . The woman will most likely never see the money paid to the fraudster again.
“We are usually only able to protect the victims of romance scammers from high financial losses in cases where the money transfers were recently made or were noticed directly through the credit institution,” explains Kohl.
Victims wait too long to report out of shame
The main problem for the police when investigating cases of love scamming is that they usually find out about the incidents far too late, as the police spokeswoman explains. Out of shame, victims often hesitate for a long time before filing a complaint. “This makes it difficult for us to identify a suspect,” explains Kohl. In addition, the perpetrators are rarely based in Germany.
Wolgasterin and her scammer were in contact for over a year
The police officers in Anklam are likely to be faced with the same problems in their investigation into the case of a 59-year-old from Wolgast who also transferred large amounts of money to an online acquaintance.
According to police investigations, the romance scammer wrote to the woman via a social network, established a friendly relationship with her and later asked her for financial help. The woman transferred around 100,000 euros to various foreign and German accounts. In this case, too, the victim and the fraudster were in contact for over a year.
Love scammers pose as US soldiers, engineers and businessmen
The police repeatedly warn against so-called love scamming. In this scam, the perpetrators, most of whom operate from abroad, contact single people via dating portals or social networks and try to build a romantic relationship. The aim is to influence the other person by feigning strong feelings so that money is paid.
The fraudsters prefer to pose as engineers, architects, sociologists, designers in the oil industry, veterinarians, computer specialists and US soldiers, the police explain on their online prevention page “Scamming: Be careful with virtual acquaintances”.
Male victims are lured with pictures of attractive women who are supposedly nurses, doctors, teachers or employees at the orphanage. Love scammers always leave a serious impression, warns the police. Once contact has been established, the perpetrators manage to “make themselves indispensable in the daily lives of their victims. And without a single meeting.”
All of a sudden the new love finds itself in financial distress
To get money, fraudsters come up with lots of stories. The fraud victim in Ribnitz-Damgarten was told by her fraudster that he needed financial support for documents so that he could later import diamonds into Germany. This is just one of many scams scammers use to beg for money.
One of the most popular approaches: As it is described on the police prevention website, the fraudsters bombard their victims “with long letters full of bombastic vows of love” after the first contact. Caught up in the expressions of love, the scammers announce that they want to visit their new love. But then suddenly there are problems and difficulties in starting the trip to Germany that was supposedly booked.
“Robbery, stolen or confiscated passports, hospitalization after a car accident or problems with credit cards,” say the police. The victims would then be asked to help their new lover out of trouble with a cash transfer. These scams often work, as the most recent cases from MV show.
Love scammers can be exposed with Google
In addition to the warning not to make transfers to people you have never met in person, the police also have a very practical tip to unmask love scammers: enter the name of the internet acquaintance with the addition of “scammer” into Google, for example. In many cases, the search engine can confirm suspicions, according to “Scamming: Be careful with virtual acquaintances”.
And the photos of alleged US soldiers or doctors could be checked in search engines using reverse image search.
.... Mod comment: at the moment is Google huge crap and shows nothing in the Add-on Pic reverse search. You must upload pic, then it goes to Google lens and you get shopping results for the person, where you can buy her dress.