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Romance Scam

Please report romance scams and dating scams here. We accept reports on Russian scammers and Nigerian scammers.

Disclaimer regarding pictures posted on the board: please understand that you are NOT looking at the pictures of people who are actually scamming you. The people portrayed on these photos are innocent men and women, NOT involved in scamming in any way and have nothing to do with scammers. The scammers are using their images without their knowledge or permission to deceive their victims and steal their money.




Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

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Mini
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Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

Postby Mini » Tue Oct 05, 2010 10:08 am

HongKong Focus
Romeo conmen target lonely hearts
By Hazel Parry (HK Edition)

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/hkedition/ ... 336643.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

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FrumpyBB
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Re: Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

Postby FrumpyBB » Thu Oct 07, 2010 8:36 am

^^
HongKong Focus
Romeo conmen target lonely hearts
By Hazel Parry (HK Edition)
Updated: 2010-09-22 08:00

Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

The dating scam uses social networking sites to haul in its victims.

Fraudsters are creating sophisticated bogus online personas to woo lonely women and fleece them out of thousands of US dollars. Now they are turning their attention to women in Hong Kong. Hazel Parry investigates.

Markus was everything Angeline could possibly hope for, and more. He was a wealthy doctor living in London, a widow, a caring and loving man - and best of all, he wanted to marry her. Angeline was smitten and couldn't believe her luck.

She had met Markus Tauffik on the social networking site tagged.com in July. In his picture he looked genuine, friendly, handsome and slightly younger than the 52 years he claimed to be. "I am looking for a caring, loving woman. Is that you?" he had asked her early in their online romance.

Within days, they were messaging each other constantly. He told her about his life and how he had tragically lost his wife in a car accident, leaving him to bring up his teenage daughter Tiffany alone. Angeline had even called him on a UK telephone number, while Tiffany has messaged her, and asked if she could call her "mom".

"God has brought us together, my Angel," he told her later. "I am so happy. I cannot wait to be with you and for you to meet my Tiffany. She needs a mom like you."

Angeline, a single 56-year-old Filipino domestic helper working in Hong Kong, was hooked. She was just weeks away from the end of her contract and a long-service payout which would net her HK$40,000.

"I thought he was the real thing," she said. "But I learnt my lesson the hard way."

The lesson Angelina learnt was harsh indeed - and one being learnt by scores of lonely people, men and women, all over the world. Angeline had fallen victim to a romance scammer. He was most definitely not British, not a lawyer, and very definitely not looking for love.

On the contrary, he was a scammer, most probably Nigerian, living in Malaysia. His name was one of many aliases he used to snare lonely women. The photo he posted on the site was an image of a stranger stolen from internet from a model agency or other social network site.

Unfortunately, by the time Angeline learned the truth it had cost her $1,000.

"He was on the way to see me and we were to get married," she said. "But the day he was due to arrive, I received a call from someone claiming to be a customs official in Kuala Lumpur. The woman said Markus was in custody. He had been caught carrying too much cash, almost HK$1 million in pounds.

"It is an offence in Malaysia to bring in that amount of cash. I had told him just to bring travellers cheques. I was told they were holding him until I sent $3,000. Then he would be free to get his flight to Hong Kong."

Foolishly, Angeline arranged a transfer of $1,000 to the customs officer by the name Nabilah Saadon via Western Union. The day after she received a series of calls from a man calling himself Nazril Aziz, asking for more money. He told her he wanted to help the doctor who was sick and needed to catch his plane.

Then came the Yahoo messages from Markus's daughter Tiffany urging Angeline to help her father and pay up.

But there was something in Tiffany's story that set alarm bells ringing. She said her father was half British and half Qatari, while Markus had very definitely told her he was from Iceland.

It was enough to make Angeline suspicious and when she pressed Tiffany and asked for her telephone number, she stopped messaging suddenly. A friend contacted the British Consulate in Kuala Lumpur on Angeline's behalf. The officer said it was a scam, and one that was all too common, and that on no account should she send any money.

"When the customs officials called again I told them 'I know there is no Markus, and I know you are not customs officials'. I never heard from them or from Markus again."

It is a sad story but it is not unusual. Google "internet romance scams" and the results will display an alarming number of blogs and website pages dedicated to this topic and hundreds of sad stories just like Angeline's of women and men who loved and lost large sums of money.

People, usually middle-aged, trusted their internet dates and ended up with broken hearts, broken dreams and in many cases hundreds and thousands of dollars poorer. One site, http://www.romancescam.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, has posted hundreds of names and photographs used by the scammers as a warning.

The scam is a variation on the advance fee fraud, also known as the Nigerian 419 scam which gets its name from the section of Nigeria law which outlaws it. The classic 419 involves a spam landing in your inbox which promises wealth in return for help with something like an investment or dealing with unclaimed money in a will.

Respond and you will be asked to send an advance fee, comparatively small compared to the money you will recoup, to help with taxes or transfer fees.

The dating scam differs in that it uses dating and social networking sites to haul in its victims, building up a relationship of trust with declarations of love and promises of marriage. According to http://www.datingmore.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, these scammers come not just from Nigeria, but many other West African countries such as Ghana, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

"Recently Malaysia became a real hotspot for Nigerian scams. There is a huge Nigerian cell operating out of Malaysia, targeting mostly Asian women. Please keep in mind: all these white engineers supposedly from the UK, but appearing in Malaysia, with awful spelling are in reality Nigerian scammers," it says.

Many of the Nigerians operating scams in Malaysia are believed to have entered the country on student visas, which led to the government tightening up visa restrictions earlier this year.

Hong Kong, with its high number of professional never-married women and huge population of female domestic helpers, provides potentially rich pickings for scammers. Recent statistics show there are now only 889 men for every 1,000 women, compared to 1,087 men to 1,000 women in 1981.

Dolores Balladares, chairwoman of United Filipinos in Hong Kong, said domestic helpers were particularly vulnerable to online dating scams because poverty in their own countries drove them to seek better lives elsewhere.

"I have heard stories of this happening of women meeting people online and then losing money and ending up having heartache," she said.

"The internet is very popular with Filipinos here. They say they are using it to talk to family and friends. But if you dig deeper, they are looking for a brighter future.

"They are hoping they will come across someone who is interested in them, who they can have a good relationship with and that eventually that person will take them to their country and settle down.

"They don't want to return back home because of poverty. They have read stories with happy ending about people who fell in love after meeting online. They are looking for that happy ending - but it is very rare.

"My advice is: Don't get too involved with someone you have never met. Don't give money or property. With this kind of technology, a person can pretend to be anyone. They don't have to reveal their true identity."

China Daily telephoned Markus Tauffik on the UK number he had given to Angeline. The call was diverted to Malaysia. A man answered the phone and said he was Markus and said he was in Malaysia. "Are you online now?" he asked initially, clearly unsure who the caller was.

When told the caller was a journalist in Hong Kong and asked about his scams, Markus became agitated. His accent became more distinctly African, and he demanded to know who had given his number. "Are you stupid? Don't you know who you are talking to," he shouted, before cutting off the call.

The office of the Nigerian Consulate General in Hong Kong did not respond to calls from China Daily. The Malaysian Consulate also did not return calls for comment.

A Hong Kong Police spokeswoman said they the force did not keep specific records of dating scam crimes but said: "Members of the public are reminded to be cautious in making friends through internet platforms. In particular, they should not easily part with their money to unknown party that they have not met in the physical world.

"If in doubt, they should discuss with their family members or friends before making any important decisions. If any person believed that he or she has fallen prey to a scam of one form or another, they could report it to any police station."

Angeline has little hope of ever seeing her $1,000 and is sad but philosophical about her experience. "Sometimes we learn things the hard way," she said. "But I'm thankful I wasn't harmed bodily and I am still strong. I am determined to start again and make the best for my family."

But will she continue to search for love on the internet? "I am still on tagged," she confided. "But I won't be fooled again. I am cynical over these things now and I know their lines. Maybe I'll go online and chat, but not seriously anymore. If somebody wants to convince me they are serious, they will have to come and find me here.

She added: "My advice to anyone thinking of internet dating is to be very careful and think a hundred times before taking a simple chat to the next stage of a relationship."

Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

(HK Edition 09/22/2010 page6)
Please try your best to block ALL your scammer´s still incoming messages and calls!

What is all this? => The FAQ

The scammers vs. Why is "he" still doing it?

Why is alerting the man in the pictures DANGEROUS?

Please click why confronting my scammer is terribly wrong :)

LaraC
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Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:39 am
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Re: Romeo conmen target lonely hearts

Postby LaraC » Thu Mar 03, 2016 6:20 am

It is wrong to say scammers target lonely hearts.
I wasn't lonely when I was scammed.
Being single = lonely, is a simpleton conclusion and a wrong depiction.

Wrong because then everyone thinks "I won't get scammed".

Scammers target newbies on online dating websites.

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