Women used in Romance Fraud
When is comes to criminals targeting men, they either use pictures of female military (read about this here), on the odd occasion a captain or seafarer or business woman, but mainly they use adult actors (porn stars) or provocative women. They are individuals who have endless sexy pictures available on social media which play into the narrative they want to use with men.
The same emotional manipulation takes place, the nature of the contact is often very sexual.
If the pictures are discovered as belonging to the real owner, they will often claim that they wanted to leave that lifestyle but management or an ex have been threatening them so they set up social media with a different name to stay hidden. They may claim that the management control the large or verified account or that the ex hacked it, for example and is still posting pictures taken when together to make them unhappy.
Lots of different scenarios for extorting money can be used here with women’s pictures.
Bank Accounts
Criminals may introduce victims to a (cloned) bank account login page which shows that the character has plenty of money to fulfill the work they are doing, or savings from an inheritance. They will possibly ask 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.
- Data for Chatting or Video Calling
A very common ask with these online fraudsters, is to request gift cards (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Steam and more) for the purpose of buying data so the fraudsters can continue chatting with the victim or to make video calls which may be asked for when they are questioned. Many people don’t realise that the gift cards they purchase and are asked to photograph the front and back of the card to send, CANNOT be used in another country. Unfortunately, people also don’t realise that gift cards cannot be purchased for buying data or wifi.
These cards are traded with other criminals who will make deals for the best rate of the local currency.
Phones may be requested to enable the character to continue chatting with the victim after it has ‘been broken or damaged’. Sometimes they also ask for a contract with the phone citing reasons as to why they cannot get them at that point.
2. Inheritance Scams
Inheritance scams can be stand alone scams in other fraud but are used in many scammer scenarios for romance fraud.
Once trust has been built and the relationship secured, the scammer will discuss with the victim that they have had notice that a distant family member or friend has died and that they are listed as the beneficiary and that inheritance laws may mean a risk to the payments (or a similar scenario). The victim, as the only trusted contact, will be asked to deal with the lawyers to sort out the estate.
There can be two scenarios here. One is that the scammer asks the victim to open a bank account so that the funds can be deposited and kept safe while the character is away from home. This is one way in which scammers create a story so that they can use the victim as an unwitting money mule. Criminals need ways to launder money and romance fraud victims are used to do just this. The money is safe, as the victim believes they are in a relationship and this money has been sold as helping to secure their life together.
The other scenario is that the victim, when communicating with ‘the lawyer’, will be told that there is an inheritance tax to pay to get the funds released. Stuck out of the country, the scammer cannot access funds to sort this problem, so the victim is asked to comply with the request in order for the inheritance to be released.
The inheritance can be money or something else such as gold.
3. Flight tickets and hotel bills
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.
5. Rent and living expenses
A typical scenario with women formats is that they are looking after an elderly relative and because they have left an abusive ex or a job they no longer wanted to be part of, that they are on the move, gone to stay in another country to get away from them all and they are struggling to make rent and pay for food etc. The victim is asked to help contribute to these expenses until they are settled.
6. Medical fees
One of the most classic traumas that occurs in these frauds is that someone is injured or has fallen sick and doesn’t have the ability to pay the bills because of the bank accounts being frozen (this will have been built in to the story earlier on). It can be the character themselves, an elderly relative or the child who may be visiting the father abroad. This format of course is playing on the emotions and good nature of victims, causing fear that the person they have fallen in love with might die.
7. Package Scams
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 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.
In cases where investment is being offered in a business or to help complete a contract, the scammers may try a contract scam which can be found here.