Flirt Glossary – Romance Scamming
The English-language term Romance Scam refers a form of internet fraud make the victims believe they are in love with the aim of obtaining financial benefits.
By far the most widespread form of romance scamming is carried out by organized gangs in Nigeria and Ghana. In the first phase, the scammers prefer to generate profiles on free online dating sites in which they pose as American or English singles.
They use these profiles to contact gullible singles and usually pretend to have spontaneously fallen in love. Once a potential victim has bitten, there are lengthy email correspondences, phone calls and love letters before a visit is usually promised in the third phase.
Sequence
In the early phase of the romance scam, this visit was in danger of failing due to an incident while transiting through Nigeria or Ghana (involvement in a traffic accident, unjustified detention, kidnapping, etc.) and a money transfer via Western Union was requested in order to get out of the alleged situation to be able to buy their way out of an unfortunate situation.
Today, however, romance scammers have bank accounts worldwide to make money transfers less suspicious.
Another form of romance scamming is carried out by Eastern European women who, in contrast to African scammers, do not target women but men and initiate contact primarily via relevant East-West brokers.
Extent & scope
To get an idea of the extent of this form of fraud, we use the FBI's figures : in 2011, around 50.3 million dollars were reported that US citizens transferred to African romance scammers. Around 80% of the victims were female and mostly over 40 years old. In Europe, due to the linguistic proximity, England is particularly affected; there are around 200,000 victims so far.
$1.3 billion to romance scams last year (2022) – a 164% increase from 2019 – and a total of $3.3 billion since the start of the pandemic – see Romance Scamming Getting Worse – Protect Yourself this guide.
And experts say the country's ongoing loneliness crisis has created the perfect opportunity for scammers to strike.
Since the early days of romantic relationships, scammers have found ways to take advantage of people by telling a compelling story. But with the rise of online dating, these scams have proliferated and evolved into more sophisticated long-term scams designed to gain victims' trust.
According to the 2022 FTC report, the most popular ways scammers reached victims last year were Instagram (29%) and Facebook (28%).
And as these schemes become more widespread and complex, the number of people falling for romance scams continues to grow. Last year (2022) 70,000 people reported being victims of a romance scam average loss of $4,400 .
Source: Internet Crime Complaint Center: 2011 Crime Report
Romance scammers are also becoming more and more active in Germany, but the financial damage has not yet been researched.
Countermeasures
Many reputable contact portals have now responded to this increasing threat and are taking countermeasures. These range from automated profile checks and identity checks to fake reports by users.
Unfortunately, these preventative measures can only ward off around 90% of black sheep. Ultimately, it is always important for users to always use common sense when something seems suspicious.
“Scammers are always super nice and super perfect ,” confirm users. Internet users should therefore always ask themselves whether it is normal for them to receive such a message. If there is uncertainty as to whether it is actually romance scamming, he or she should get a second, independent opinion.
This is also what Berlin Chief Inspector and Head of Department for Goods and Services Fraud and Cybercrime Carsten Szymanski recommends. “If you don’t have anyone, it’s not a bad idea to call the police,” he advises.
Always ignore demands for money, no matter how small they may be at first!
eDarling psychologist Wiebke Neberich explains : “The moment the money is demanded, the scammer exerts pressure. Emotional blackmail occurs: If the person affected does not help, then he/she is to blame for something terrible, which also makes further contact impossible. Those affected help because they feel responsible and do not want to give up contact.” However, these fake events are never true.
So please don't react to it!
Since the perpetrators are outside the EU, there is little real chance of taking action against those behind this fraud or getting back the money you have already lost. Therefore, prevention the best strategy against scams.
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