Professing love, claiming to care for a child – cunning tricks scammers use to target Australians

Scammers are deliberately targeting men and women on dating websites by ‘professing their love’ and begging for money.  

The cunning approaches used by scammers to target their victims were revealed in a report released by the ACCC on Monday. 

The report revealed no matter if the victim is a man or woman ‘the scammer will quickly profess their love’. 

 

 Scammers are deliberately targeting men and women on dating websites by ‘professing their love’ and begging for money

‘The scammer will sometimes claim that they were married once before but their wife died in tragic circumstances such as a car crash or from a terminal illness,’ the report stated.  

Another trick scammers use is claiming to work overseas or to be finishing their final military mission to ‘take care’ of a child they are raising on their own. 

Australians lost $340 million to scammers in 2017 according to a report – more than any other year, with romance and investment scams costing the most. 

Women were almost twice as likely to be targeted by a dating scam than men, reporting losing $12.7 million in romance scams compared to $7.1 million for men. 

Australians lost $340 million to scammers in 2017 according to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report

Australians lost $340 million to scammers in 2017 according to an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report

One woman lost $223 thousand to a man she met on a dating site claiming to be a businessman from Western Australia dealing mining diamonds.

She transferred him thousands of dollars believing to be is business partner to support his ‘ongoing process of cutting and polishing diamonds’.  

‘He felt distraught and alone without cash and a credit card and he begged me to send him some cash,’ the woman told the ACCC. 

One trick scammers use is claiming to work overseas or to be finishing their final military mission to 'take care' of a child they are raising on their own

One trick scammers use is claiming to work overseas or to be finishing their final military mission to ‘take care’ of a child they are raising on their own

‘I transferred money via a remittance service, $71,700 for custom duties, another $20,000 for GST, $40,000 for clearance, legal and shipping costs and airline ticket to return to Australia. 

‘He had an accident on the way to the airport, I paid for his hospital bills.’   

NSW had the highest percentage of scams at 35 per cent, followed by Victoria with 29 per cent, 17.9 per cent in Queensland, 8 per cent in Western Australia, 4.6 per cent in South Australia, 2.1 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory 1.8 per cent in Tasmania and 1.2 per cent in the Northern Territory.    

Men reported losing $22.8 million on investment scams, compared to just $8 million for women.   

Australian scamming victims lost an average of $6,500, with some people losing more than $1 million. 



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