Doctors used in Romance Fraud
Doctors, like military and other professions are thought of as trusted individuals who sign oaths to keep people safe. They are the perfect profession to be used in a fraud where gaining trust is paramount. Combine this with the fact that many doctors whose photos are used have an air of charisma and confidence about them and you have a deadly combination.
Doctors, whatever their ‘real life contribution to the medical profession’, are used mainly as surgeons and frequently orthopedic surgeons who work with the military, United Nations (UN), World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF and similar. The criminals will place the same risks and asks on them as they do in the military scenarios (you can read about this here).
The UN publishes list of doctors who work with them and they hire local doctors, not from the West.
They are also used in investment opportunities or falling short on contract completion for clinics they are building or expanding. Once the target has been hooked through the grooming and love bombing process (you can read about this here) and the story scenario and dreams of this character are completely embedded, the fraudsters will discuss a problem that has occured with finding money to complete the contract for the clinic they are creating.
- Contracts
The criminal may imply that the contractors have increased the costs associated with the completion of the project. 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. 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.
Other financial exploitations may happen in this format depending on the criminals in question. You can find other ways these fraudsters exploit money here.
Doctors are also used as ‘the doctors’ (one of the cast) in other formats when a medical emergency occurs.