Internet dating scams usa

He is a fellow at the Convergence Migrations Insitute Paris. While we have been focused on the COVID pandemic, vaccine mandates and related protests for much of the past two years, a wave of financial fraud has spread rapidly across Canada and around the world. Scammers — mainly working for Chinese organized crime gangs — pose as attractive professionals or entrepreneurs looking for true love. They use dating apps , including Tinder, Grindr and Hinge, as well as social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to match with their potential victims.

They thought he was in danger and needed the money, but their debt just bankrolled the elite lifestyle he lived and used to woo his next mark. Its popularity has helped bring the sophistication of the modern con to light. The job of a scammer has always been to stay one step ahead of their possible marks, and in the modern age that means taking the personal touch of the old-fashioned street con and translating it into the modern world of global social media. But scammers do not discriminate.

A new report says thousands of American men and women fall victim. Men and women looking for prospective romantic partners online should take note of these two: Laura Cahill, who described herself as an aspiring young model living in Paris, and Britney Parkwell, who pointed to her relative youth as a year-old from sunny San Jose, California. There's one big problem: Despite profiles that said they were seeking love online, they never existed. They were fake personas created as part of an elaborate scheme run out of Africa to con hundreds of thousands of dollars from vulnerable Americans, according to the California-based cyber-security firm Agari.

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