Last Updated on by SCARS Editorial Team
SCARSSCARS SCARS - Society of Citizens Against Relationship Scams Inc. A government registered crime victims' assistance & crime prevention nonprofit organization based in Miami, Florida, U.S.A. SCARS supports the victims of scams worldwide and through its partners in more than 60 countries around the world. Incorporated in 2015, its team has 30 years of continuous experience educating and supporting scam victims. Visit www.AgainstScams.org to learn more about SCARS.™ ScamScam A Scam is a confidence trick - a crime - is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust through deception. Scams or confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility, or greed and exploiting that. Researchers have defined confidence tricks as "a distinctive species of fraudulent conduct ... intending to further voluntary exchanges that are not mutually beneficial", as they "benefit con operators ('con men' - criminals) at the expense of their victims (the 'marks')". A scam is a crime even if no money was lost. Basics: Road Trip Or Out Of The Country!
Why Are Most Romance Scammers Never At Home?
Why Do They Tell You They’Re Out Of The Country?
There are several reasons for this, but most of it comes down to two key points!
- They do not want to get trapped into having local knowledge
- They will ultimately need to have the victim send the money to another country
Local Knowledge
In the first case, scammers are very ignorant about the real world. Testing their knowledge about the location they claim to live in will almost always trip them up – even though they could Google it, they will never be as familiar as someone that actually lives in that country or been there.
In fact, one of the best ways to trip up a scammerScammer A Scammer or Fraudster is someone that engages in deception to obtain money or achieve another objective. They are criminals that attempt to deceive a victim into sending more or performing some other activity that benefits the scammer. is to spend a few minute research the location they claim is their home and then quizzing them about. Especially if you make up a place and ask them if they remember it. They will fear sounding like a scammer and most of the time agree they know it – even though you made it up!
Sorry, Can’t Meet You
One of the problems with a scam is saying you are in a place and having a victim that wants to go there. They need to have vast distances that discourage a victim from wanting to travel there.
The combination of the distance and the events that befall the scammer help keep meeting in real life an impossibility.
Fiction Factory
Another reason they say they are traveling or went to visit another country is that they are reversing the Local Knowledge on you – they know their country, so they can sound more confident and factual when they talk about it.
Plus it gives them an additional range of topics, crisis, emergencies, and the like to weave into their fantastical stories. And it makes it all sound more exotic and romantic!
Getting The Money
In the end, the major reason for the traveling abroad stories is to reinforce the reason for the scam – receiving money in Ghana, Nigeria, or elsewhere. When they tell you where to send the money it has to be where they really are.
However, with an ever-growing number of money mulesMoney mules Money mules are a type of money laundering where a person transfers illicit funds through a medium (such as a bank account) to obfuscate where the money came from. There are different types of money mules including witting, unwitting, and complicit., it is becoming easier for scammers to receive the money anywhere!
As always take nothing for granted – assume scammer first last and always until you have proof!
SCARS™ Team
A SCARS Division
Miami Florida U.S.A.
Do you have a Scam or Scammer Basic question for us? Leave it in a comment and we will respond!
TAGS: Road Trip, Scammers Out Fo The Country, Never Available, Traveling In Africa, Business Trip, Military Service, Emergency, Crisis When Traveling,
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