Internet Romance Scammers Know What Their Victims Are Longing To Hear

It can be surprisingly easy to fall prey to a romance scam — and has nothing to do with stupidity, an online fraud expert has warned.

Key points:

• Smart people regularly fall for romance scams and it can be easy to fall for a person you’ve never met, says Suli Malet-Warden
• Hundreds of relationship scams reported in the four years to 2018 cost an average of $117,000 per event
• Ms Malet-Warden says people are more trusting with online relationships because they see no non-verbal cues

It is a ‘romance’ between people who never meet, based purely on text messages, internet liaisons, and phone calls.

Yet victims all too often are willing to give away thousands of dollars and risk facilitating a crime.

Learn more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-26/romance-scammers-know-what-victims-long-to-hear-expert-says/11350738