Love-Scamming on TikTok

[IceFM]

..... NNN; Sebastian Lohse | 30.05.2024, 12:50 Uhr

69-year-old falls for love scammers on Tiktok

A woman from Western Pomerania-Greifswald transferred several thousand euros to a love fraudster. The police warn of the scam.

Instead of finding true love, a woman from the Vorpommern-Greifswald district lost a lot of money. An unknown person alleged to be a doctor contacted the 69-year-old via the social media service Tiktok. He made her believe that he had to flee a war zone, for which he needed money.

Woman transferred money to the “doctor” several times

The Anklam police station said the woman was in contact with the suspect from mid-April to the end of May. She transferred amounts of money to various foreign accounts several times. The woman was finally made aware of the suspicion of fraud by her bank. In total, she suffered financial damage of more than 10,000 euros.

The criminal police have started investigating fraud. It's another case of so-called love scamming in MV. Just in April of this year, two women from Graal-Müritz lost around 90,000 euros in a similar case. A woman from Wolgast was cheated out of around 100,000 euros at the beginning of the year.

In love scamming, the perpetrators usually contact single people via social networks and try to build an - often romantic - relationship. The aim of the scammers is to influence the victims emotionally so that they send them money. As soon as the fraud is noticed or no more payments are made, contact will be terminated.

This is how love scamming victims should react


Anyone who has fallen victim to such fraud should contact the police immediately. It is recommended to backup chat histories, emails, and other evidence. To prevent things from getting that far, the police advise not to transfer money to anyone you haven't met or seen in person. People's good faith is often exploited by fraudsters, especially on the Internet.