TSB has released data ahead of Valentine’s day showing how dating sites are “riddled with scammers”. Unfortunately, it has shown that women were targeted in two-thirds of the cases it analysed and the average age of those scammed was 47 years old. The average amount of money swindled from women was £6,300 compared with men at £4,600.
Robert Rendell, VP of payment solutions at Feedzai, said of romance scams:
“These scams are about coercion and manipulation of emotions. Individuals need to be careful about what they post on social media. For younger generations, that could mean heart break or recent break-ups, while older people might need to be especially careful right after a death of a loved one. As crass as it sounds, fraudsters love obituaries, they offer up very emotional insights into one’s life and all the remaining survivors. For example, a fraudster might call up an elderly woman and inform her that her grandson is in jail, after reading the name and other identifiable information in the obituary. In other instances, scammers might impersonate a former co-worker of the deceased, and use that as a way to gain the victim’s trust.
“At this time of year, people are advised to pay attention to what they share on social media (Facebook / Instagram / Tinder) – personal information such as a recent breakup might be weaponised as part of elaborate social engineering scams. Fraudsters often create intricate narratives that will make use of any publicly available information, whether that is the name of relatives, friends, or other details that might add credibility to their story and help them befriend their targets.”
Paul Bischoff, privac ..
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