Online dating has become the new hype of this decade. Young or old, people rely on online websites to find a suitable partner. While many of these sites have helped people find true love, online dating involves a lot of risk as it has become a new area of target for scammers. People all over the globe lose millions of dollars to online dating scams every year.
Nigerians have been known to deceive people with various schemes that guarantee to return a million-dollar fortune on receipt of payment of some amount. Fraudulent emails have been their weapon of choice for tricking people into attractive schemes. Now, these criminals have not only chosen to rob you of your money, but they also leave you heartbroken.
These Nigerian fraudsters have moved out of their country and have set up camps in various countries around the world. Most of them are teenagers and young adults who live under the fake identity of a student or immigrant worker.
Who Are Their Targets?
The ultimate aim of these scammers is to extort money from innocent people by tricking them into romantic relationships. Preying on the middle-aged is a relatively easier task than preying on younger groups. These scammers look for divorcees or bachelors between the ages of 40 to 70. These people are vulnerable and lonely at this stage in life, which makes it easier for scammers to emotionally manipulate them.
Scammers make multiple fake profiles on various dating sites. The profiles are smartly structured with various fake pictures and other information that makes it look genuine. The next move is to wait for a message or call from a new victim.
How Do the Nigerian Love Scammers Function?
In a public interview, one victim revealed her story of how she lost $90,000 dollars to one such scammer. According to her statement, the scammers tell you all the things you’ve ever wanted to hear, things that make you feel loved and wanted. They even send gifts to the victims to make the relationship look real.
Scammers build up elaborate stories about their lives to lure in potential victims. They portray a personality that a victim will easily fall for. The promise of a new and better life is a common trick used by these scammers to attract victims. Once they gain the trust of their victims, they put forward their need for money. They tell lies about their need of money for some business or repayment of a loan, problems which sound very genuine. The victim is hopelessly in love by now and easily gives in to the scammer’s request for financial help. By the time the victim realizes, the money is already lost.
To avoid being traced, the scammers start contacting the victims on their email addresses and phone numbers. They even manage to get their victim’s home address. These are attempts to collect information about the victim. Targets are chosen wisely, based on their ability to provide money.
Once the scammers get the money and information they need, their profiles are removed from the sites and other new profiles are created. This makes it even more difficult to track these criminals.
Unfortunately, these scammers are now winning the battle with a huge global network. They are highly intelligent and resourceful, making it difficult to get them behind the bars.
Exposing the Online Dating Scammers
In an attempt to stop these criminals and to give victims a reality check, a team from the show 60 Minutes Australia decided to expose these notorious Nigerian scammers by setting a trap. With assistance from experienced fraud investigators and local undercover police, the team set up a meeting with one of these scammers in a luxury hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This time, the legal team decided to follow the same trick as the scammers and trap them. One of the female investigators created a fake profile online and befriended one such scammer. As expected, the scammer demanded a sum of money. Soon, the team was able to set up a meeting with a promise to hand over cash. The plan succeeded as the Malaysian police nabbed six members of the scam group in the hotel.
After searching their rooms, the police found multiple expensive items bought from the money these fraudsters swindled from their victims. Further investigation of their phone records and email addresses revealed hundreds of contacts of various victims across the globe. Most of the contacts belonged to middle-aged females looking for a partner to escape loneliness. The data found provided evidence of the fact that a single person was scamming a large number of people with various profiles, all at once.
Documents collected from one of the victims revealed a name that was the prime suspect. A detailed investigation showed that the money was being deposited into some bank in Nigeria. It was found that the money the scammers collected was sent to various crime groups in Nigeria. A large sum of money also supports terrorist groups back in Nigeria. The scammers themselves keep a good amount and live a luxurious life, while the victims dwell in bankruptcy and heartbreak.
The Reason Behind the Success of Romantic Scammers
Even with ample publicity of such romantic scammers, people still fall victim to online dating scams and end up losing money. The only reason behind the success of such scammers is emotionally weak people. Falling in love is never harmful but being blinded by love can prove to be dangerous. This is the case with the victims of online dating scams. In a desperate attempt to stave off loneliness, such people are easily impressed by a scammer’s sugar-coated words.
Nigeria has a successful underground economy of scammers who know how to rob unsuspecting victims. Cyber experts are constantly warning people against such romantic scams. The minute an online profile makes a request for money, that is your red flag. However, in the case of romance scams, the victims have developed an emotional connection, causing them to overlook such warning signs. They give in to the requests and believe they will get paid back. In many cases, the scammers can get money from a victim over a prolonged period with multiple lies and stories.
Many victims give away their entire life’s savings and even land in debt in the hope of having a good life with their online love partners.
Conclusion
Countries all over the world are putting forward their best efforts to expose Nigerian online dating scams. However, these scammers are now a pandemic that is hard to eradicate unless the public becomes alert. We should have command over our emotions and think rationally when visiting online dating sites. The scammers will try to contact you off the dating sites on your number or email or ask way too many personal questions. These are the signs that warn you of the scam. Learn from cyber experts and guard yourself against online dating scams.
If you were scammed by bad people, please let us know how – we will publish a warning to others!
