A romance scam occurs when strangers pretend romantic intentions, gain the affection of victims, and then use that goodwill to gain access to their victims' money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, e-mail accounts, and/or national identification numbers or by getting the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf. ^[1]

Romance scams by newspaper and letters

In the 1980s prisoners within the Louisiana State Penitentiary in unincorporated West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, United States operated an advance fee fraud scheme. Advertisements, mostly of men seeking men, appeared in newspapers in Canada and the USA. In each case, the scammer sent the mark an image of an attractive person and gave a pressing reason to send money. If the mark complies, the scammer asks for more money.^[2] Kirksey McCord Nix used the scheme to raise enough money to attempt to buy a corrupt pardon from the Governor of Louisiana.^[3]

Romance scams on the internet

Scammers post profiles on dating websites to fish for victims. Upon finding victims scammers lure them to more private means of communication to allow for fraud to occur. ^[1]

Many scammers favor religious dating websites such as Christian sites, because the users are more complacent. Religious site users tend to assume that because they are on the religious site, their fellow users will have high moral values. ^[4][5]

Rhonda McGregor, an online moderator for the ROMANCE SCAMS Yahoo! group, stated that many romance scammers avoid answering personal questions and ask their victims many questions. ^[1]

Common variations

Narratives used to extract money from the victims of romantic scams include the following:

1. The scammer says that his or her boss paid the scammer in postal money orders. The scammer wants the mark to cash the scammer's money orders and then wire money to the scammer. The forged money orders leave the banks to incur debts against the victims.^[6]
2. The scammer says that he or she needs the mark to send money to pay for a passport. The scammer wants the mark to cash the scammer's money orders and then wire money to the scammer. The forged money orders leave the banks to incur debts against the victims.^[6]
3. The scammer says that he or she requires money for flights to the victim's country because of being left there by a step-parent, or husband/wife, or because they are just tired of living in their country^[7] and somehow never comes, or says that he or she is being held against his or her will by immigration authorities, who demand bribes.^[8]
4. The scammer says that he or she is being held against her will for failure to pay a bill or requires money for hospital bills.^[7]
5. The scammer asks the victim to package goods sent from one address and send the goods to another address. The victim does not realize that the scammer set him or her as a part of a stolen goods distribution scheme. If police investigate the trail, the scammer's use of mules makes tracing of the scammer more difficult.

Romance scams as the subject of documentaries

Romance scams have been a popular subject for documentary-makers: BBC's Panorama covered this, and more recently, in February 2008, it was the subject of an investigation by Morland Sanders for Tonight with Trevor MacDonald

References

External links

• ROMANCE SCAMS at Yahoo! Groups
• Experiences with scam on online dating sites
• Dating Fraud Scam Emails
• Alden-Tirril, Anna, Cyber Loves Illusions, White Cottage Publishing Co., Washington, D.C., 2007.
• romancescambaiter.com - How romance scammers work, victim interviews and advice on what you can do to fight back
• romancescam.com

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