Construction, Contractors and Architects
Most romance fraud scenarios will start with the criminal’s character already working abroad or soon to be leaving to go abroad. This builds reason for not meeting immediately and opportunity for things to go wrong, where the fraudster can make the victim feel, that they are the only one who is trusted to help.
Architects, construction workers, contractors, engineers (and similar titles) all have potential to be working on overseas projects, especially when they are successful companies. These criminals will create company websites and project websites to back up the story they have told and there may be Linked In profiles to match the characters they created. Until recently, due to new legislation, the criminals have even registered these companies on the Government Companies House website. They will go to great lengths.
Lots of characters can be in any of these casts and dependant on the type of exploitation will be who is surrounding the victim. A child, lawyers, business partners, friends.
Projects, some may described as the biggest they have won a bid for, will be incredible such as huge housing complexes and if apt for the moment, relevant in news such as the war in Ukraine and rebuilding roads and bridges. Contracts will be shown to the victim with the large amount won in the bid evident to see.
Many extortion scenarios can be used in this format, however the main ones tend to be:
- Contracts
The criminal will imply that the contractors have increased the costs associated with the completion of the project bethat materials, labour or tools. The project, or companies (which scammers often create fake websites for) will be incredibly close to finishing, which also means that the character will be able to come home, to be with the victim or the victim come to them. In most instances, the criminals will declare that they have managed to raise say 90% of the remaining cost through other stakeholders or business associates and friends (this may be evidenced). They will then say that it’s the last thing they wanted to happen but that they needed to ask if there was any possibility that the victim can raise the remaining money, because they have been locked out from the online banking while away.
The criminals may have already introduced the victim to a bank account login page which shows that the character has plenty of money to fulfill the work they are doing, possibly asking the victim to make a transfer for them as they are too busy and of course, the victim is trusted. They may also have sent fake notifications where an unusual login attempt has arrived on their device after instructing the victim to do so. Later down the line, this can be used as the reason the online banking has been blocked.
The victim is now faced with a time pressured decision to make, so that the person they are in love with doesn’t lose the dream they have been building and also the completion of the project which would bring the character home. There may also be feelings of guilt that they did something wrong when logging in to the account which has caused the issue in the first place. In some victim’s frauds, the fake bank websites (often cloned with real details) will have ‘contact us’ information and the victims may be directed to try and sort out the problem as it was their device details that logged in. The ‘bank staff’ will respond and tell the victim that unfortunately the account owner will need to go in branch to unfreeze the account.
The fraudsters may give two possible scenarios; one is to loan the money until their return and the other is to invest and be given shares in the new clinic, where they would then benefit from the growth and profits. In this instance, another cast member (this time a lawyer) would contact the victim with all the relevant forms to make the investment legal. There would of course, be pages created to make the lawyer look legitimate. This is also an opportunity to get personal identity documents and other personal data for use in other frauds.
2. Package Scams
No format used by these criminals, escapes the possibility of the package scam (aka the consignment scam).
The package scam is where the criminal will tell the victim that they are sending some important documents and/or gifts to the victim from the place of their current place of residence.
As with all package scams, the victim will have other characters brought into the cast, this time that of the courier and/or a customs official. In the case of the shipping agent or courier, the characters will send emails to the victim with notifications. This is also the part of the story where other fake websites are created to mimic that of the courier company and the tracking number sent in the email can be loaded into the website, the package can then be tracked as it makes it’s journey. Once at the destination point, the victim will be contacted by customs, this can be via email or a phone call if the criminals have employed a worker (or blackmailed another victim), to impersonate this department where the voice on the end of phone will be the local language. The victim will be informed that there are import taxes due to be paid on the package before it can be released for delivery. If the victim challenges the cost of these taxes with the scammer, they will declare that there is cash in the box to cover the cost when it is delivered.
3. Plane tickets
A common exploitation tactic used in many formats will be where the criminal’s character has asked the victim to send money for a plane ticket. Of course, after some time the victim is hooked and entrenched in the fake reality that has been created around them. ‘Agents’ will contact the victim via email or text and send invoices for the cost of tickets, which the fraudsters will of course have created documents to mimic real ones. The victim will be eager to finally get to meet the person they have spent the majority of many months talking to and paying for flights would be the way to get them home. There may be photos of the airport to help secure belief of the victim.
4. Trouble at the airport
In some scenarios, the criminals will declare that here has been a mix up at the airport and that someone has tried to smuggle something in their case or that possibly, materials they used in the project have been found to be stolen or inferior quality and on inspection the project manager was being blamed. The character may declare that their passport has been taken and they are being held by the authorities until something can be sorted. It is here that a lawyer may once again be in contact explaining that the character needs legal help to get his documents back so he can travel. The victim will be reminded that the character has money (possibly seen in a bank account) and that with help, they hope to see them soon.
Other financial exploitations may happen in this format depending on the criminals in question. You can find other ways these fraudsters exploit money here.