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littleroundman
06-17-2013, 02:46 AM
Online dating dupes people out of millions

Sarah Whyte
Consumer affairs reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald

A passionate online romance with an aid worker in Africa might sound appealing but it is one of many scams that cost Australians more than $93 million last year, with dating scams among the most lucrative.

More than 2440 jilted lovers reported a tryst - with a worker supposedly from the United Nations, an engineer working in the Persian Gulf, or a serving US soldier - that quickly escalated to a financial disaster, a report by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission shows.

More than 84,000 Australians who contacted the ACCC lost $93 million to scammers who wanted an advanced fee for a service, offered online shopping promotions, lottery tickets or were involved in computer hacking, the report showed. The average age of victims was between 33 and 45.

Of the online dating victims, 30 per cent reported a loss of more than $100,000 after they were duped into sending money to help ''build a new orphanage'', start a business together, travel together or for illness.

Victims of romance scams lost an average of $21,000, the report said.

''They are not only breaking people's wallets, they are also breaking their hearts,'' deputy ACCC chairwoman Delia Rickard said.

Despite the relatively small number of victims, dating website scams became the second highest category for losses, totalling more than $23 million. Investment scams recorded a loss of more than $30 million, asking victims for ''up-front payment''.

Australians' losses to online dating scams are up by $8 million on 2010.

The fake relationships would often start on a legitimate dating website, and were generally conducted by scammers in Nigeria or eastern Europe, Ms Rickard said.

For months, the new love interest would ''groom'' their victim, sending them flowers, presents or long love letters.

Romance victims who earnestly believed they were in a serious relationship would become defiant when police suggested their love affair had been a sham, Ms Rickard said.

For more information on scams, go to Scamwatch - outsmartthescammers (http://scamwatch.gov.au/outsmartthescammers)Sydney Morning Herald (http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/online-dating-dupes-people-out-of-millions-20130616-2ocae.html)

ribshaw
06-17-2013, 09:29 AM
''They are not only breaking people's wallets, they are also breaking their hearts,'' deputy ACCC chairwoman Delia Rickard said.


This is what I am seeing over on Facecrook. Unlike a Ponzi scheme or 419 scam where someone thinks they are getting something for nothing these people truly thought they were helping someone they cared about out of a jam. I have read a bunch of these letters since starting my little project and even as poorly written as they are can still see the thought process that may go through someone's head who was reading one for the first time.

scratchycat
06-17-2013, 11:40 AM
LRM, we are finding more & more people are so shocked that their 'love' affair is a scam. One got engaged to the guy within a week or two but after being notified by some of us, she realized she had been taken. He even posted a picture of her on his fb page! The best we can do, as far as I see, is warn these people and show them proof until the news and social media begin exposures on these crimes that are as this lady stated "breaking hearts & wallets". Ribshaw has done a great service to a lot of people in the last few weeks of his diligence. All of us could do more...

path2prosperity
06-17-2013, 03:30 PM
I was interested to see an article which stated that the most likely age for a woman to get ripped off is late thirties to early forties. The maternal instinct is so strong with some women that the thought of not getting married of finding a partner before the menopause can make them unbalanced.

I watched a wild life program once where a lioness who had no cubs of her own became very angry and aggressive and tried to steal one from another members of the pride. The urge to procreate ones genes can have devastating effects on some people.