Worrying, losing money, psychological damage, embracing more frustrations following being cut off contact, the sisters realized that they had been cheated. It can be said that this is a problem that occurs all over the world, not just developing countries like Vietnam.
On April 11, 2022, a romance published on Factchequeado awakened many women in many countries. It’s the story of Ana, a woman in her 40s who fell victim to the classic scenario. Through the online dating app Tinder, she met Thomas Paul, 46, an officer in the US military on a mission to preserve and protect peace abroad.
From Tinder, the two switched to regular WhatsApp chats as if they had belonged together for a long time.
There is one big obstacle preventing them from being together soon. Paul said that he was sent to Ukraine and that he would need more than 6,000 euros to return home. Ana only realized she was being scammed following losing the money. In fact, Paul’s Tinder profile features photos belonging to American soldier Tyler Thomas, who has more than 40,000 followers on Instagram.
The story was published last June on both Latin Link NC and partners of Factchequeado, The Univision Detectorand many websites that are aimed at women from Latin America.
Some media outlets see Ana’s case as one of the best examples of building anti-fake skills while taking advantage of the development of digital technology. These studies also warn that the sooner a person responds to false or misleading content, the better their chances of averting its harmful consequences.
This helps many young girls and middle-aged women to gain more knowledge, avoiding the trap set up by handsome faces that the media calls a “catfishing” tactic. That is, using a fake identity or account to approach a person, build a beautiful romantic relationship, and then ask for money to be transferred to solve a related financial problem through irreversible scenarios. more perfect.
The latest figures from Internet Crime Reports show that in 2020, there are 24,000 victims of “catfishing” on social networks. Accordingly, victims report financial losses of more than $600 million in 2020, up 26% from a year earlier.
Figures from the website socialcatfish.com show that 3 in 10 Americans think they are interacting with social media “catfishing” scammers.
