Jay's Blog

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Romance Scams

      Recently I took some training on preventing and dealing with
"romance" scams. This term broadly covers scams which play on the
emotions of the victim. Some truly involve romance where the scammer
tries to start a romantic relationship with the victim. There are also
many which play upon the victim's emotions--people with alleged
financial or medical problems, people stuck overseas, people who have
short-term money needs to get a large inheritance etc.
   The scammers are very adept at finding their victims; using many
sources of information to try and create an emotional connection.
People who are lonely, have just lost a spouse, been divorced or
moved. They can use the smallest scrap of information to start an
on-line conversation in e.g. dating sites, chat rooms, etc. For
example, they find out the person grew up in say, Cedar Rapids, and
say "Wow I grew up in Cedar Rapids too." They then fish for more bits
and to try and start  a relationship.
  Fake photographs of young attractive people are often provided,
feeding the ego if the victim is an older person. If the victim
responds, the scammer quickly moves to "I love you," "I want to be with
you." Telephone calls may follow with someone else from the scammer's
group posing as a young person. When the victim thinks they have found
a love interest, the hook is set. There is always some reason the two
can't meet in person, a reason that requires the victim to send money.
"I need $800 to pay taxes or I can't get a passport." "I need $2000 to
settle my late husband's estate, then I can come to you." If the victim
responds, further and ever larger requests quickly become demands,
sometimes resulting in threats to the victim. When the victim can't or
won't send additional funds, all contact is broken.  The victim may be
devastated, and unwilling to tell family members what has occured.
  Another variation plays upon people's charitable or religious
leanings. "My family is trapped here in Lebanon. We can get  our
family into the U.S. but we need $3000 for visas and tickets." Or, "You
are a good Methodist. We came here to Chad to be Methodist
missionaries but our charity went broke. Our whole family is trapped.
We need money to bribe the officials to let us leave." Of course none
of these stories are true. The scammer could be in the next county, or
in Thailand.
  If you or anyone you know gets contacts like these: 1) HANG UP; GET
OFF THE INTERNET. 2) Never give out personal or financial
info--address, bank name SS or account numbers. If you or a family
member gets any kind of  suspicious contact, please contact Jon,
Camielle, or me at any time at 712-625-2201.  We will try to help persuade your family
member to avoid this situation, or limit the damage.

Jay