We have all faced internet scams of
different kinds in our “online lives”. Be it money scams, identity theft scams
and even charity donation scams, we have seen or heard about them all. A new
addition to this list is “girlfriend scams”.
What
are girlfriend escams?
It is a scam directed towards people
who are looking forward to meeting a romantic partner through the internet.
There are several websites and apps for these purpose and the scammers operate
on all these platforms.
The scammers pretend to be the
partner these people are looking for. They use emotional tactics to get people
to reveal their personal details and more.
Girlfriend scams have been around
for some time. Nowadays they have become even more active. Why is that so?
1) Many sites dedicated to romantic partners have cropped
up in the past few years
2) People are lonelier than ever and are desperate to find
a romantic partner, even if virtual
Other than dating apps and websites,
girlfriend scams are also active on social media platforms. A very good example
of this kind of a scam is illustrated below:
A scammer used pictures of a very
famous actress to an individual who was looking for a romantic partner. This
individual didn’t belong to the actress's’ home country and had no idea about
her existence. He saw the beautiful pictures and fell for them immediately.
This scam went on for some time until that man caught a plane to India’s
capital, looking for his girlfriend. Policeman were flummoxed when this man
showed them pictures of Aishwarya Rai, a very famous Indian actress and claimed
she was his girlfriend. They didn’t know what to tell the poor guy. He was
nothing but the victim of a girlfriend scam.
There have been plenty of cases like the one
written above. In most cases scammers use pictures of beautiful girls and
attract people. In this particular case, pictures of a famous person were used.
Along with fake pictures, these girlfriend scams create a fake profile or steal the profile of another person.
They may use fake names or use real names of real people. There have been cases
where scammers have used names of military personnel or aid workers posted
abroad.
Scammers prey on the loneliness and
the vulnerability of people who are looking for romantic partners. They say
things which the person wants to hear. Having dealt with many lonely people as
part of their scam, they know exactly what to say and when. It is difficult to
catch these lies unless you are actively looking for it.
A common method used by girlfriend
scams is that they express romantic interest towards the other individual very
quickly. They truly try to make it look like a “whirlwind romance”. The person
at the other end gets caught in the web of deceit and lies and falls for it.
If it looks good to be true, it
probably is. There is no rulebook for defining this and a person has to trust
their instincts on this.
