The number of online romance frauds has exploded with the pandemic and all-digital. Often lonely adults let their guard down in the face of crooks who shower them with love. The Guardian explains this increasingly sophisticated phenomenon and the workings of the manipulation of these victims.
“I registered on dating sites so as not to experience another confinement on my own.” Like other lonely people, Keith Grinsted, 69, ignored the warning signs until he fell into the trap of a hustler, who broke his heart.
For several weeks, he tells the Guardian, he exchanged with a person he thought was “Tina”, imagining a life together made impossible by distance and the pandemic. Until she asks him for a bit too much money – and when faced with his doubts, she stops answering him overnight.
Love scams are not new, but with the pandemic, the number of victims is soaring on dating apps and social networks like Facebook, explains the British daily. The development of digital and the arrival of the pandemic, where only online flirting was possible, thus played into the hands of crooks.
Meetings necessarily virtual
The cases of “romantic frauds” would rise to 8,863 between November 2020 and October 2021 in the UK, compared to 6,968 cases the previous year. A total of 92 million pounds went missing last year.
Those who bond over the Internet between Christmas and Valentine’s Day are the most exposed to scams.”
Adults over 45, and in particular women, would be the first targets of these professional scammers. “At this age, these people are
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Independence and quality characterize this title born in 1821, which counts among its ranks some of the most respected columnists in the country. The Guardian is the reference journal for the intelligentsia, teachers and
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