Police issue warning over ‘romance scammers’

Police have issued a warning on Tuesday to alert the public to the growing trend of online romance scammers.

In a document titled ‘What You Should Know About Romance Scams’, police said romance scammers create fake profiles on dating websites and apps or communicate with their targets through popular social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook or Google Hangouts. Scammers build a rapport with their targets to build trust, sometimes by chatting several times a day. Once trust has been established, they make up a fictional story and request money.

Romance scammers often say they live or travel outside the country where their potential victim lives. Common scenarios propagated are that they are working on an oil rig, in the army, doctors in an international organisation, members of multinational corporations or members of charities.

Typically requests for money are couched as necessary to pay for airfare or other travel, medical expenses, customs fees to repossess belongings, gambling debts because their lives are threatened, visas or other official travel documents.

The most common method of procuring money is to ask the victim to wire money via electronic transfer, recharge cards like MoneyPak or gift cards from vendors like Amazon, Google Play, iTunes or Steam.

These methods are preferred because they enable scammers to get cash quickly and because the transactions are almost impossible to reverse, let alone trace, allowing the scammer to remain anonymous.

To avoid being victimised police offer the following advice:

Never send money or gifts to a ‘loved one’ you haven’t met in person.

If you suspect a romance scam stop contacting the person immediately.

Talk to someone you trust and see if friends or family are worried about the person you’re talking to.

Do an online search for the type and location of the suspicious person to see if other people have posted similar stories.

Before trusting anyone you meet through dating websites and apps, do a reverse search of the person’s profile picture to see if it’s associated with a different name or details that don’t match.

If you suspect you have been duped and have paid a romance scammer via a gift card, police recommend you contact the company that issued the card immediately and ask for a refund.

If you are a victim or believe that it is a scam, contact the Police Cybercrime Bureau immediately or submit a report online through the Cybercrime Complaint/Information Form on the police website.

Notify the website or app through which you encountered the scammer, so that they can take actions accordingly.

For more about online scams and useful tips, visit: CyberAlert.Cy.