In this journal the author has provided a detailed anatomy on the online romance scam. How actually a scammer starts an online relationship and ends it. There are few stages in order for a scammer to successfully gets what he/she wants (mostly on monetary purpose).
Stage
|
Actions by scammer
|
How Scammer communicates with victim
|
1
|
The Profile:
-
Attractive photographs
-
Claims that
their from US but working in UK
-
Describes themselves
as being well-off or a widow/widower with a child and looking for honest and
trustworthy person
|
-
This man
was so good-looking, he took my breath away. (female victim)
-
She looked
like a model, very attractive (male victim)
-
Yeah, like
a foundation or something like that. Make gas and oil foundation for…whole
Europe, or…contact with another country. Very attractive. He was rich,
important. (female
victim)
|
2
|
Grooming:
-
Scammer will try to groom the victim, by increasing
the intimacy in the relationship
-
Syndicate member
will convince victim on how much he/she love her and would like to have a
permanent relationship
|
-
She said
she loved me and asked me to marry her, so we were talking about a
long-term
commitment relationship in the first few weeks. (male victim)
-
He sent me
a love poem every morning and we were on chat (IM) for hours every night and
he called in the morning to say good morning and every night
to
tell me he loved me and would never let me go. (female victim)
-
Next came
the teddy bear with a banner on its chest stating “I Love You.”
(female victim)
-
We spoke
for a week when I got my first bouquet of beautiful red roses.
(female victims)
|
3
|
The Sting:
-
Scammer will
attempt to con the victim out of money and may ask for small amount of money
first and then larger amount
|
-
And then
she said, I’m coming over, I want the airfare…And she sorted all out
the
prices and everything herself. As I
say, she didn’t arrive because she had
this
accident and ended up in hospital over there. (male victim)
-
When she
called me 4 hours later she told, that she had been in an accident,
hurt
a little girl, which was in hospital in a coma. (male victim)
-
His
daughter got hurt in an attack by some militants and he asked me for money
for medical bills. (female victim)
|
4
|
Sexual Abuse:
-
After obtaining
the money the scammer may ask the victim to perform sexual act in front of
webcam (2 main purpose ; one is for the scammers own amusement or as a
material to blackmail the victim)
|
-
|
5
|
Revelation:
-
Victim finally
will realize that he/she has been scammed if there is no communication from
the scammers after sending money
-
Some victim may
make a report/complain to the respective department
|
-
|
For further reading about this journal :
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