Well bless this reporter's heart for trying to get the word out.
He's got it mostly right with only a few tiny exceptions:
Scammer's in Malaysia don't limit themselves to Australian and Singapore. Scammers don't limit themselves to anything but basic stats. Potential victims are:
1. Seeking a relationship,
2. Lonely enough to relax being suspicious or cautious,
3. Lives in any area where people either have money or access to it,
4. Is not computer savvy,
5. Impulsive (or liberal enough) to disrobe on webcam.
I hope he knows the difference in reporting free dating site profiles and paid dating site profiles - but he doesn't say. We do not encourage the removal of fake profiles on free sites. See our FAQ on this subject.
Awww . . . the poor woman in Brighton whose photos were used. Why was it offensive that she was asked to submit proof of her being the real picture owner? The site would have more likely responded to her request. It seems like a reasonable request to me. Anybody can say they are really her - it's what the scammers do.
And the US man? He shouldn't assume it's the same scammer using his pictures everywhere. There are probably many.
And while I'm on this subject . . . informing the real picture owners (RPOs) is not in anyone's best interests. When they come here, it usually takes a lot of work on our part just to bring them up to speed on what is really going on. They almost always jump to the first (mistaken) conclusion that we are exploiting them. This disrupts our work in too many ways to go into here, but suffice to say both victims and RPOs lose when this happens.
Last, to answer the question:
. . . if the National Security Agency could keep watch over his internet activity, why couldn’t it keep watch over that of scammers like these?
Oh they can keep watch. They even know. And I believe a lot of money ends up in the hands of nefarious terrorists, organized crime syndicates and corrupt political leaders. They know. But in reality, there is very little the NSA can do to these overseas organizations.
The better question to ask is why isn't our government doing more to educate people, limit internet access for overseas users, limit overseas money transactions, boycott or restrain trade between offending and corrupt countries and better supervise or raise the standards of online dating and social media listings?