After creating a profile, they establish virtual contact with other users. As the relationship deepens, the scammer—claiming to be a foreign man or woman—convinces their partner that they have fallen in love and want to move in with them. They deceitfully extort money from their “love interest” for the journey, which never actually takes place…
– We warn internet users about scammers operating on dating websites. Using the example of one user of a popular international service, we present how the perpetrators operate, police officers say.
On a dating website, an internet user came across the profile of a woman claiming to be from the Philippines and living in China. The profile included her name, photo, occupation, country and city of residence. The Polish man and the foreign woman became acquainted, and their relationship quickly developed into regular online and telephone correspondence. The woman assured him of her feelings and said that she would like to live in Poland.
The couple began planning the woman’s arrival. The man transferred to the foreign account of a travel agency what he believed was the amount necessary to pay for the journey and for the woman’s living expenses in Poland for the next six months. On the day of the planned journey, the man was informed that his “beloved” had been detained at the airport because she was carrying gold for him in her luggage. To release her from detention, additional money had to be transferred. The Polish man was informed of this by a man claiming to be a foreign official.
After her alleged release from detention, the woman contacted her acquaintance via the internet and assured him that she would soon fly to Poland. The man, however, realized that he had been scammed after coming across a profile created two days earlier using his love interest’s image. In total, the female scammer defrauded him of more than PLN 32,000 and exposed him to costs related to telephone calls and text messages.
Police warn: it cannot be ruled out that the scams are being carried out by an organized international gang of criminals who exploit the gullibility of people seeking to find the love of their life online. Be careful!
KWP w Katowicach, mw/ii