200,000 Love Scam Victims in UK?


Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain may have been hit or duped by online romance scams, far more than previous estimates.

The study undertaken by Monica Whitty and Tom Buchanan, psychologists at the Universities of Leicester and Westminster, is probably the first formal academic analysis of the pervasive scam.

Criminals often set up fake identities on dating and social networking sites, using stolen photographs (of models or army officers) and pretend to develop a romantic relationship with their victim.

Such scamsters have persuaded many to part with large sums of money before their suspicions are aroused, often on emotive or humanitarian grounds, according to a Leicester statement.

Even when victims cannot, or will not, send money, scammers involve them in laundering money by asking them to accept money into their bank accounts.

Researchers surveyed over 2,000 people through an online YouGov survey and estimated from the results that over 200,000 British citizens have fallen victim to the crime.

"This is a concern not solely because people are losing large sums of money to these criminals, but also because of the psychological impact experienced by victims of this crime," said Whitty, professor of psychology at Leicester.

"It is our view that the trauma caused by this scam is worse than any other, because of the 'double hit' experienced by the victims - loss of monies and a 'romantic relationship'," Whitty added.

"It may well be that the shame and upset experienced by the victims deters them from reporting the crime. We thus believe new methods of reporting the crime are needed," added Whitty.

According to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), romance fraud is organised crime, usually operating from outside Britain.

Colin Woodcock, SOCA's senior manager for fraud prevention, said: "SOCA has worked hard to understand the nature of this crime and how it can be tackled, and this study provides further insights into the extent to which it is affecting people."

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See what we get when we search "google-romance-scam-search" in google's images.


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Comments (3)

Lychagin Ivan
Said this on 1-10-2012 At 03:54 am

Dear Sirs!

Scam or love – You should know exactly!

In the last time the amount of internet fraud in Russia  has been  increased. Of course not every case of internet meeting is automatically a fraud. But everyone wants to be sure in his vis-à-vis.

I am a lawyer, I live in  Russia, I’m a former investigator and chief at the investigation department. I have much experience with things of this sort. I can research, whether the person is really or just a scam. Be careful, don’t let to make a fool out of you!

Already scammer’s victim? How is to get money back? Address to me: lychagin.ivan@rambler.ru, Tel    +7 960 49 73 500        

Smith McDougall
Said this on 12-23-2011 At 06:47 pm

I worked with an agency who are able to detect scammers by running a Conflict Checks on them. Any body you meet online, we can provide you with the real identity of that person. If you want to know more on how it works, you can get in touch.

Grace
Said this on 2-10-2012 At 08:47 am

Hi. I met someone in an online dating site and we have been dating for the past six months. I am interested in knowing how your check system works because I really want to know whether his identity is real or fake.

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