Overall losses to romance frauds hit arecord-shattering $304 millionlast year, the Federal Trade Commission said. Criminal cases from coast to coast reflect the horror stories behind that statistic. In New Jersey last year, federal authorities announced a$6 million casecentered on romance frauds. One victim met a man on Match.com who purported to buy and sell jewels for a living. The woman sent nearly $115,000 to his conspirators — and to give even more, embezzled $4 million from her employer, The Star-Ledger reported .
Laiming she was scammed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a fraudster who was posing as Hollywood actor Jason Statham. He would sent Yin messages telling her she made his life “extraordinary.” Yin fell in love quickly, according to ABC 11, and sent him money for what he said was a secret mission in Afghanistan. The easiest way to avoid scammers is to stay away from their usual stomping grounds. Maybe they’ve been the victim of crime themselves, and suddenly need money to cover rent. Nearly tripled between 2015 and 2019, with a total of $201 million being lost to scammers. Dan Coolman is another false name, but we discover the phone is registered to Daniel Joseph Okechkwu.
It has evolved to become a nickname for anyone who was scammed. IJGB– “I Just Got Back” is a Nigerian nickname for Nigerian returnees from overseas who most times only for the holidays. Chargie– This nickname has also gained popularity among Nigerian youths, often time used to refer to female partners.
The 27-year-old, who calls himself Kweiku, is searching for ‘clients’ — scammer parlance for victims who can be conned online into sending money. Online shopping scams are becoming more common, more intense, and more widespread. Do not send money, gift cards, electronic transfers, cryptocurrency, wire transfer such as Western Union or money order. These are all virtually untraceable and there is usually no way to recover these funds. If you do receive an email that you suspect is a scam, you can take some simple steps to investigate it.
Other Nigerian Romance Scams
The romance scam has ballooned in recent years, according to Laura Eimiller, communications director for the FBI in Los Angeles. In 2016, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received close to 15,000 reports of “romance scams,” amounting to more than $230 million in losses. (That was 2,500 more reports than the previous year.) The states with the most victims were California, Florida, Texas, New York and Pennsylvania.
Victims are likely not the first person that the scammer has contacted. They cast nets far and wide to find people who are most vulnerable and willing to believe their story. Often times, these scammers attempt to find women who are middle-aged or older, single or widowed and potentially in a vulnerable state.
Why it’s important to report a scam
It´s about questioning if this person is really honest and who he or she claims to be. Never travel to a foreign country to meet someone you’ve met online, without first having a real background check investigation conducted by a reputable private investigation company. There are too many stories of abduction, blackmail and even murder. Windsor’s legal challenge, and her subsequent victory, overturned Section 3 of DOMA, which had previously prevented the federal government from recognizing legally-performed marriages of same-sex couples.
Keep an eye out for any strange details they tell you about themselves. According to a former scammer that spoke to Social Catfish regarding these efforts, about one in 10 people willingly surrender money. It often starts with something relatively inexpensive as a means of testing the waters, but can quickly escalate to large sums of money. Sometimes they will even use a new victim as a pawn to launder money from other victims, sending it to their account and asking for them to send it back in order to effectively clean the cash. These types of schemes are known as romance scams, and while there is no shortage of scams online, few are more devastating. According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost $143 million to romance scams in 2018, with the average victim getting scammed out of about $2,600.
That makes it all the more painful when the rug is pulled out from under them and the scammers make off with their income or savings. Along with a wounded heart, you’ll be left with mountains of debt and the hope that the person with whom you fell in love is genuine. Little Kinsley also happens to have down syndrome, lesbianpersonals.com which means she was born with “a little extra love” in her chromosome 21, as the woman notes. A woman from Michigan is being grilled by other parents on social media — and rightfully so — for commenting on a six-year-old cheerleader. Yes, this dating platform is results, and it contains numerous user profiles.
Here are some quick steps you can take to protect your business or yourself from falling victim to a Nigerian scam in the workplace. The scammers have shown themselves to be very cunning and may outwit even these protections, but they should provide a strong shield against many attacks. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. 100% of all profit goes to help SCARS help more scam victims worldwide. The SCARS Slate Bookshould be purchased by family and friends to better understand what happened to the victim and the traumatic impact on them. But it can also be shared by the victim so that they do not have to explain to family and friends about the scam.
Most victims are too embarrassed to go to the police, but there are still 10 catfish crimes a day reported in the UK. The scammer sends you payment for whatever you are selling but sends too much. In the meantime (hopefully for them, it’s after you send the money) their payment is canceled or retracted.