Gooseberry Planet Limited has permission to share with you this Action Fraud (NFIB) alert from the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre, who own the copyright in the article. Do take care if using dating websites.
Lonely Hearts Romance Fraudster
Alert
The
NFIB have become aware of techniques used by romance fraudsters against people
using dating sites. Not only will they steal your heart they will steal
your money and your identification.
When
you think you’ve met the perfect partner through an online dating website or
app, but the other person is using a fake profile to form a relationship
with you. They’re using the site to gain your trust and ask you for money
or enough personal information to steal your identity.
A
dating fraudster, previously involved in deceiving people that wanted a
friendship explained how they would create fake accounts with social media
platforms so that their details matched and could be searched. By
appearing to be a real person their fake persona could be corroborated by
prospective partners searching their background and believe them to be
genuine. The fraudster said:
“People like to live in fairy tales to say it won’t happen to
me. I make sure all my conversations are bespoke. I will show insecurity
myself about trusting people and this helps allude to them that
I’m genuine.”
The
fraudster will also utilise as many accessible online research tools to explore
people’s information for their own personal gain or sell onwards. The
fraudster elaborated and explained:
“I use various online directories to find out about the person.
Once I have enough, I use it to milk everything I can using their details
or sell them on to other fraudsters via the dark web”
When
asked how people could check if a person is real. The romance fraudster offered
advice for others searching for a relationship. They told us that after
you see a picture of them:
“Ask for them to send you another photo of themselves posing
with their thumbs up or waving. It’s like a form of 2 factor
authentication and makes it hard to do if it’s not an original picture”
What you need to do
· Avoid sharing too many personal details when on
online dating profiles. Revealing your full name, date of birth, or full
home address may lead to your identity being stolen.
· Never respond to any requests to send money, or have
money transferred into your account by someone you don’t know and trust.
These types of requests should always raise a red flag. If something feels
wrong then it is usually right to question it.
· Pick a reputable dating website or app, and use the built-in messaging
service. Fraudsters
want to quickly switch to social media or texting so
there’s no evidence of them asking you for money.