The nasty business of love

the most recent case of so-called "Romance Scam" has been reported by the Zurich cantonal police in the middle of December. A 53-year-old woman had been cheated of a virtual marriage swindler of around 180'000 francs.

This is not an isolated case: In August, the Solothurn cantonal police reported a Mittfünfzigerin, transferred to a supposedly in prison, a man sitting 150'000 Euro. In the Canton of Freiburg, the wrong lover conceded, according to the Canton police since the beginning of the year 200'000 Swiss francs. And in the Canton of Zug, a 41 - and a 59-year-old woman gave in April to a Internet relationship and have been betrayed by around half a Million Swiss francs.

Parallel to the grandson trick

"Romance Scam" or "Love Scam" ("scam" is English and means "fraud") is the modern Form of marriage fraud. The scammers claim to be under false identities in partner exchanges and social networks such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat as a suitor. Similar to the Grandson of con artists, you have great psychological skills and are able to work with the victim of a "serious" relationship. The monetary claim is initially not in the foreground, but the conversations and contacts revolve around work, family and a future together.

ask if the scammers have the trust of the victim, money, and heart tell wrenching tales of an accident, ill-health, authorities problems, family or business emergencies.

Fake architect in emergency

In the case of the above-mentioned from Zurich, the "architect" in a professional emergency, and the 53-Year-old referred to him in instalments, within half a year the money was. Only when he no longer reported, reported the woman's display because of the fraud.

The nasty business with the feelings is booming: The Federal office of police (Fedpol) received in the last year 123 messages to "Romance Scam". In 2016, there were 140, in the year 2015 only 81 messages. "But they are only the tip of the iceberg and does not represent the total mass of the phenomenon," says Fedpol spokeswoman Lulzana Musliu. You go from a high number of unreported cases, since the phenomena are associated with Lust and shame. Often the women affected would go only to the police, if you have already lost a lot of money.

How to run a case, is described on the Website of the Swiss Agency for crime prevention in detail. As a fictional example of a supposedly well-off canadian engineer mentioned that writes to a matchmaking platform, a woman from the Bernese Niederbipp. He called himself Bob Tyler and gave her after a short time, a very strong and flowery, that she was exactly the woman of his dreams. The woman longed for already a long time for a partnership, and the longer you are with Tyler chats or on the phone, the more convinced she is of his interest in her. As the cheater sure is that the emotional dependency is sufficiently strong, and a personal Meeting is planned to follow the accounts given by the alleged emergency.

So this Bob Tyler, he was on the way to Switzerland tells about business but about Dubai travel. The business to be concluded successfully, he must shoot a certain amount of shooting forward, where Tyler has for various reasons not have access to his own resources, and the woman asks to transfer as quickly as possible the sum, so that he could make the trip to Switzerland finally. The Meeting serves as a bait, so she paid the money.

scammers in West Africa

What do the victims do not usually know: Internet profiles can be faked, and e-mail addresses or telephone numbers are no reliable information on the countries of origin of the scammers. The alleged Bob Tyler does not live in Canada. Men, the "Romance Scam" to operate, often from West Africa, where they are organized in gangs. Women that cheat in this way are often from Russia.

The men pass themselves off as engineers, architects, U.S. soldiers, or computer specialists, the women work as Doctors, nurses or teachers. The scammers often speak good English. The portrait pictures must have been stolen somewhere in the Internet.

The money transfer is usually done via money transfer Services such as Western Union or Moneygram. Since the perpetrators operate mostly from the abroad and in Internet cafes, is a tracking of the money flows is hardly possible.

If the victims have sent intimate pictures of himself, the Scam artist trying to blackmail you. The "Love Scam" then moves seamlessly into "Sextortion". The combination of words mixed with "Sex" and "Extortion", what means in English "extortion".

(Tages-Anzeiger)

Created: 30.12.2018, 22:23 PM