A
romance scam is a
confidence trickA confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
involving feigned romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining their affection, and then using that goodwill to commit fraud. Fraudulent acts may involve access to the victims'
moneyMoney is any object or record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts in a given country or socio-economic context. The main functions of money are distinguished as: a medium of exchange; a unit of account; a store of value; and, occasionally in the past,...
,
bank accountA Bank account is a financial account recording the financial transactions between the customer and the bank and the resulting financial position of the customer with the bank .-Account types:...
s,
credit cardA credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
s,
passportA passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
s, e-mail accounts, and/or national identification numbers or by getting the victims to commit financial
fraudIn criminal law, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation...
on their behalf.
Newspaper and letters
In the 1980s prisoners within the
Louisiana State PenitentiaryThe Louisiana State Penitentiary is a prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is the largest maximum security prison in the United States with 5,000 offenders and 1,800 staff...
in
unincorporatedIn law, an unincorporated area is a region of land that is not a part of any municipality.To "incorporate" in this context means to form a municipal corporation, a city, town, or village with its own government. An unincorporated community is usually not subject to or taxed by a municipal government...
West Feliciana Parish-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 15,111 people, 3,645 households, and 2,704 families residing in the parish. The population density was 37 people per square mile . There were 4,485 housing units at an average density of 11 per square mile...
,
LouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operated an
advance fee fraudAn advance-fee fraud is a confidence trick in which the target is persuaded to advance sums of money in the hope of realizing a significantly larger gain...
scheme. Advertisements, mostly of men seeking men, appeared in newspapers in Canada and the USA. In each case, the scammer sent the mark an image of an attractive person and gave a pressing reason to send money. If the mark complies, the scammer asks for more money. Kirksey McCord Nix used the scheme to raise enough money to attempt to buy a corrupt pardon from the Governor of Louisiana.
The Internet
Scammers post profiles on dating websites to fish for victims. Upon finding victims, scammers lure them to more private means of communication, (such as providing an e-mail address) to allow for fraud to occur.
Many scammers favor religious dating websites such as
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
sites, because the users are more complacent. Religious site users tend to assume that because they are on the religious site, their fellow users will have high moral values.
Rhonda McGregor, an online moderator for the ROMANCE SCAMS
Yahoo!Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
group, stated that many romance scammers avoid answering personal questions and ask their victims many questions.
In 2011,
Sarah LacySarah Ruth Lacy is an American technology journalist and author.She co-hosts web video show Yahoo! Tech Ticker and is a columnist at BusinessWeek...
managed to update the story from Nigeria, where many earlier 419 scams had evolved into online-dating scams. The scammer was "more a long-distance emotional prostitute, providing a service men appear to be happy to pay for," on the one hand, but on the other was also often a brilliant entrepreneur who made the business reporter in Lacy feel a "broad smile [spread] across my face as we spoke, even [making me break] out in laughter once or twice."
Common variations
Narratives used to extract money from the victims of romantic scams include the following:
- The scammer says their boss paid them in postal money order
A money order is a payment order for a pre-specified amount of money. Because it is required that the funds be prepaid for the amount shown on it, it is a more trusted method of payment than a cheque.-History of money orders:...
s. The scammer wants the mark to cash the money orders, and then wire money to the scammer. The forged money orders leave the banks to incur debts against the victims.
- The scammer says they need the mark to send money to pay for a passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
.
- The scammer says they require money for flights to the victim's country because of being left there by a step-parent, or husband/wife, or because they are just tired of living in their country and somehow never comes, or says that they are being held against their will by immigration authorities, who demand bribes.
- The scammer says they are being held against their will for failure to pay a bill or requires money for hospital bills.
- The scammer says they need the money to pay for the phone bills in order to continue communicating with the victim.
- The scammer says they need the money for their or their parents' urgent medical treatment.
- The scammer says they need the money to successfully graduate before they can visit the victim.
- The scammer offers a job, often to people in a poor country, on payment of a registration fee. These are particularly common at African dating sites.
Cultural references
- The movie Raskenstam (1983) is based on a true story about a man who seduced over 100 women and convinced many to support various of his projects financially.
External links
- Encyc: Romance scam
- Online Dating Scammers Using Stolen Images, CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
February 11, 2009, retrieved July 7, 2011