Dating-Website Users Fall Prey to Fraudster Profiles

[question everything]

A fast-growing breed of global internet crime is revealing a troubling trend: Some fraudsters are easily infiltrating popular dating sites to fleece people out of their savings, law-enforcement officials say. Cyber-swindlers lift photos of real people from the internet, and use the images to create fictitious profiles on dating sites such as Match.com, part of Match Group Inc. and the dominant brand in the U.S.’s $2.5 billion dating-services industry.

Victims lost nearly $120 million to “romance scams” in the first six months of 2016, up 23% from the year-earlier period, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which collects data on crimes primarily reported in the U.S. The $203 million in losses from romance scams in 2015 exceeded most other internet crimes tracked by the center.

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Romance scammers often claim to be Americans temporarily working overseas, said Monica Whitty, a professor at the Cyber Security Centre at the University of Warwick in England and a romance-scam expert. After a sometimes extended “grooming” process, the suitor manufactures emergencies and requests “loans,” saying his own funds are temporarily tied up, said Ms. Whitty. Once hooked, victims struggle to cut ties because they become emotionally attached and because they often have “lent” large sums of money and want to get it back. Scammers typically target people middle-aged and up, said U.S. authorities.

“Anyone could be a victim of this given the right kind of circumstance,” said Mr. Reppert, the Illinois prosecutor.

His office prosecuted Olayinka Ilumsa Sunmola, a Nigerian man who was extradited to the U.S. and is awaiting sentencing, for what federal prosecutors described as being the ringleader of a South African-based crime organization. The group used photos of American men to create bogus profiles on the dating sites Match.com, PlentyOfFish and eHarmony as well as Myspace, and bilked nearly $700,000 from 53 U.S. victims between 2008 and 2013, prosecutors said.

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In one of the largest U.S. cyber-financial fraud cases yet, defendants are to be tried in January in Mississippi, where many of their victims were located, for an alleged multimillion-dollar scheme involving many types of scams and stretching from South Africa to Canada to the U.S. The defendants preyed, in part, upon victims they met on dating sites, including Match’s SeniorPeopleMeet.com, prosecutors said.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/dating-website-users-fall-prey-to-fake-profiles-1472680583

[Peregrine Took]

1. Thanks for posting. I was trying to check some of them out for my widowed SIL who is so lonely.

They do "work" for some people but I guess its just not worth it in the long run. Maybe I'll check out the free sites but I'm sure they're not up to much.
Any ideas how to meet online?
She wants to find another Irish American like her DH but the dating sites in Ireland are restricted to Irish residents.

[question everything]

3. She can join one of these sites

I did not post, but, at least match.com explained how they are trying to prevent scammers from using the site.

I think that as long as she does not send money she should be OK. And if a "romance" falls for her refusal to send money - she will know.

[Blue_Tires]

2. k+r

Interesting that they worked this scam on women... Usually it's the other way.

[phylny]

4. Two of our daughters have found partners

using these kinds of websites. They both have a very disciplined way of approaching and interacting with men they've been "matched" to, including waiting a while to exchange phone numbers, skyping before meeting, and making the first few meetings in public places where we or friends or both know where they are, who they're with, and what the man's phone number is.

There are no guarantees, but it can work.

[question everything]

5. Smart approach. And, as long as they do not send money to the "match"

they should be OK

[whatthehey]

6. The scam uses dating sites as a contact vehicle. It's not a problem unique to those sites

Basically if you are silly enough to loan money to people you only know online, there is no difference between DU and match.com in how you were introduced to them.