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Internet dating or romance fraud or also known as sweetheart fraud targets people with online dating profiles or social networking sites. The perpetrator tries to attract gullible targets by creating fake profiles. After a bond has been formed over a period of time, the fraudster asks for monetary assistance under the pretext of some emergency cases. And that is how a person ends up losing his/her money and becomes a victim of such frauds. In almost all cases, the victims are from the United States and fraudsters are from some other part of the world. People should be alert towards attempted fraud by an unknown person claiming or professing relationship or romantic interest. The fraudster’s ultimate intention is to dupe his/her victim financially. They ask for money of various grounds including covering up traveling expenses or visa cost. Sometimes, they even ask their targets to transfer some amount to cover up hospital bills of one of their family members. The State Department and FBI offer guidelines on these issues. You can also report such frauds to www.ic3.gov. This article answers some of the frequently asked questions on such frauds. What is online dating fraud?
Online dating frauds happen when a person tries to extract money from a person with whom he/she claims to be in love without even meeting physically. These fraudsters are mainly cyber criminals and target both men and women posing as potential lover. Victims are usually within the age group of 20-40 and in most cases a victim happens to be a recently divorced or widowed or relatively well-off youngsters. These fraudsters are good at luring their victims by posing as attractive men or women and can use their victims’ certain weakness to their advantage. How to report about online dating fraud?
The most important thing one should remember is that the chances of getting back the lost money is lean as the local cops can hardly do anything on this. One should be alert and refer to the State Department and FBI guidelines on such issues. You can also report to www.ic3.gov about such frauds. This apart some of the dating sites allow the victims to report a fraud or post their stories of how they got duped by such frauds. Listed below are some of the sites where you can also report about such frauds.
1. Romancefraud.com
2. Frauddigger.com
3. Stop-fraudsters.com
4. The Federal Trade Commission
5. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center
6. Your state Attorney General
7. onguardonline.gov/articles/0004-online-dating-frauds What is 419 online dating fraud?
This is a crime that often originates from countries like Nigeria and Ghana. Perpetrators from such countries try to influence a vulnerable victim under the pretext love. Once, the victims seem to be lured, he/she would be asked to send some money as a matter of urgency. Many times, fraudsters use fictitious names and forged photographs to attract their victims. They sometimes claim that they are not in a condition to receive any calls. What is military dating fraud?
In this form of the crime, fraudsters target their victims by posing as top level military officers who have fallen in love with them. They also use photos of some men in uniform to attract their victims. They strike their preys by asking to sign up for an expensive telecommunications services like ‘Military TELEX’ under the pretext that they can not do it on their own as they are posted in war zones. Mostly, women fall for such tricks. What should I do if I feel that I have been a victim of dating fraud?
If you doubt something like this, then you should first stop all communications with the suspect fraudster. Do not answer to his/her calls and flag all online correspondence emails and chats in a folder that you have to keep for future reference. You should keep record of everything including telephone records or money transfer through Western Union or Money Gram wires. You should immediately report about the fraud to FBI or law enforcement agencies. If possible, you should report about the same in some of the dating sites. Such crimes are becoming rampant nowadays. Despite knowing about them, many people are becoming victims of these crimes each day. If you have any questions about your own situation, you should always ask a criminal lawyer who could help you in this.
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