..is not one of the commandments. Thou shalt not steal is, though, so at least they’re busted for that one. I found out about this via USA Today but I’ll be pulling my quotes out of the original article from Brisbane:
Law enforcers say an increasing number of Australians are falling victim to romance fraud, with an insidious new religious flavour that appeals to values of faith.
“They go into Christian chat rooms and a lot of the time when they ask for money, there’s a Christian element to the [scammer's] story,” Queensland police Fraud Squad chief Detective Inspector Brian Hay said.
“It’s a comfort thing for the victim.
“We are seeing more targeted attacks because people put information about themselves on to the web.”
What surprises me more about this is how it becomes newsworthy. Prior to the internet, people were still conning people out of their hard earned money. I suppose it was a lot more time consuming to approach people on a personal one-on-one level, but at least you got a good look at the crook who was about to bilk you, even if you gladly gave him all the cash in your wallet.
When I first started with internet chat stuff, this was primarily my mother’s main concern – how can you trust someone you can’t see? He says he’s a university student but you don’t know… My response always wound up being something like, how can you trust a neighbour or the guy you meet for drinks? Your own partner may have a secret life you know nothing about. Ultimately it’s no different from answering newspaper personal columns. If you dare meet these people, you arrange for a public venue and a handy phone so the friend you’ve told can call you twenty minutes into the date and make sure your head’s still on.
They’re not the first people to target lonely women for these schemes either, but why are these Nigerians so good at it?
In just the first six months of this year more than $4 million has been sent by Queenslanders to Nigeria, where romance scamming is a thriving cottage industry.
On average, Australians are sending about $4.5million each month to the African nation, where many believe they have found love.
Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said romance fraud “didn’t come much lower.”
“There is something particularly brutal and cruel about targeting someone who is lonely and vulnerable, looking for company or a partner in their life,” Mr Atkinson said.
The internet certainly makes it easier to target them on a massive scale. Curry favour by claiming to believe the same religious claptrap they do, have same values, same morals, same ideals, by gum, I think it’s love. Please send money…
Lonely people are somehow duped into replying to those automatic Nigerian scam emails, which lets the original sender create a bond with their target and gain trust, but more people wind up victims thanks to all the information available on social network sites.
Detective Superintendent Hay said a recent study of 200 victims of online fraud found 120 had fallen for romance-related scams and had collectively parted with more than $21.5 million.
“As [criminals] suck the life out of them, they get their money, they get their emotions,” Detective Superintendent Hay said.
He blamed increases in romance scams on people being too liberal with their personal details online.
People really don’t give much of a damn about privacy anymore, do they? They might say they do, but a lot of people don’t seem to have any qualms or reservations when it comes to deciding what stuff they’ll post. Even if they come across as completely idiotic and their home-made video burns through the interwebs like wildfire.
So, here’s a link with clues on how to spot an on-line dating scam. Forewarned is forearmed.
