How to be aware of Romance Fraud - NEROCU
The following is information from The North East Regional Organised Crime Unit.
What is Romance Fraud?
Fake profiles are used by criminals to build a relationship with you on social media platforms, dating websites or gaming sites. They use information found on social media to create fake identities to target you. Once a relationship has evolved, they convince you to send them money.
They often go to great lengths to gain your trust and convince you that you’re in a genuine relationship before appealing to your compassionate side to ask for money. Criminals will use language to manipulate, persuade and exploit so that requests for money do not raise alarm bells. These requests might be highly emotive, such as claiming they need money for emergency medical care, or to pay for transport costs to visit you if they are overseas.
How to spot the signs of Romance Fraud!
•You’ve struck up a relationship with someone online and they declare their love for you quickly. Many fraudsters claim to be overseas because they work in the military or medical profession.
•They make up excuses as to why they can’t video chat or meet in person and will try to move your conversations off the platform you met on.
•When they ask for financial help, it will be for a time-critical emergency, and the reason will be something that pulls at the heartstrings. They may get defensive if you decline to help.
•Their pictures are too perfect – they may have been stolen from an actor or model. Reverse Image Search can find photos that have been taken from somewhere else.
•They tell you to keep your relationship private and not to discuss anything with your friends and family.
How to protect yourself!
•STOP: Take a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information.
•CHALLENGE: Is this person really who they say they are? Could it be fake? It’s OK to reject, refuse or ignore any requests for your financial or personal details. Criminals will try to rush or panic you.
•PROTECT: Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve been victim of a scam and report it to Action Fraud.
