Recent reports of online
dating scams show a different set of effects to victims worldwide. For many,
these are the usual financial losses that are associated to extortion schemes
on the Web. On the other hand, some users claim more serious effects to their
lives after being victimized by these Internet romance scams.
These victims tell a story
that's different from those who lost their money and nothing else. To
understand these victims, you must first learn how these online dating scams
are done. Here's a brief overview about these Internet romance scams:
How Scammers Perpetrate Online Dating Scams
These criminal syndicates
target married middle-aged men and women who hang out in popular online dating
sites and apps. They do this for a reason, which you'll learn in a moment. The
intended victims of many scammers are users in North America, Australia and the
EU. There are also reports of users being victimized by these online dating
scams in Asia and South America.
To cut a long story short,
these scammers seduce their target victims into engaging in intimate
conversations with them. These fraudsters log and record their intimate chat
and phone conversations. This is so they can then threaten to expose and
publish these all over the Internet if these users don't comply with their
demands.
Since these fraudsters try
to learn as much detail as possible about their intended victims for these online dating scams, they also threaten to send these chat logs and recordings
to the victim's spouse, children, employer, friends and colleagues. This is
where many victims are forced to give in to the demands of these criminals.
So now, back to the more
serious effects of these online dating scams. This will help you spot and avoid
more sophisticated tactics that are used by these criminal syndicates to
perpetuate Internet romance fraud.
How Online Dating Scams Can Ruin Your Credit Score
A few of these criminal
syndicates devise more complex processes for bigger returns from their online
dating scams. This is where they trick users into unknowingly participating in
money laundering operations. How this goes is they convince their intended
victims to agree to go on a business venture with these scammers.
Unsuspecting users are asked
to register businesses in their own countries and apply for merchant accounts.
These accounts are used by ecommerce platforms and call centers to accept
credit card payments from customers online or over the phone.
When someone registers a
sole proprietor business and applies for a merchant account under the name of
the newly registered business, then the user's credit score is at stake. If the
merchant account is used legitimately and the registered business flourishes
with lots of profits, then this also positively affects the user's credit
score. However, this is not the case with these online dating scams.
What these scammers do with
the user's merchant account is to cash out stolen credit cards. Once legitimate
card holders file for chargebacks and disputes, the user absorbs all those
losses. This significantly affects the user's credit score, negatively. This
can take several years to fix. This can also considerably affect the living
conditions of the user, especially since credit scores are very important in
developed countries.
Some victims who end up with
ruined credit scores even encounter other more serious effects of these online
romance scams. A few have been wrongly accused of participating in money laundering
and credit card theft, while there are reports about victims ending up doing
time in federal prison!
Now that you know how online
dating scams can negatively affect your credit score and have learned about the
more serious effects of Internet romance fraud - You'll be able to choose the
most suitable ways to quickly spot and safely avoid these scammers. Share this
with your family and friends, and you'll help stop them from being victimized
by these big scammers.
