Nigerian online scams have been making the rounds recently and many people seem to be talking about the more popular ones.
Anne Adams from Roodepoort came to realize that a friend of hers Martha* was being scammed after Martha inquired about flights from Ghana. Upon further investigation she found that Martha had been involved in an online and telephone romantic relationship with a Dutch man who was supposedly in Ghana and needed money to fly to South Africa. The reason being that him and his son wanted to relocate and start a life together with Martha.
Feeling suspicious, Anne researched romance scams where she found alarmingly similar stories to that of Martha’s. She also found that an image sent by the man claiming to be of himself actually belonged to a German Musician named Uwe Hubertus whose pictures had been stolen to be used in online scams for years.
Anne approached Martha with her findings. Martha was skeptical at first but agreed to do a video test over Skype. The video they received while on the Skype call was of poor quality and had no sound. The video was later proven to be another stolen video, thus convincing Martha that she was being scammed, leaving her feeling used and heartbroken.
Anne tried to report this issue to the police as they have a 419 Scam Department but she received no answer. Martha has since terminated her relationship with the man.
* Name withheld to protection the victim
It can be seen from Martha’s situation that scammers often work on emotionally manipulating victims and take part in a long process of grooming before money is asked for. It is important to do your homework and never build relationships completely online or over the telephone.
This is how a romance scam works:
Scammers may take months to work on a scam but work on 10-20 women at a time. Men then build a relationship with women using false online profiles, and may even use children posed as their own to develop deeper connections. Scammers create strong believable indentities including jobs, pictures, profiles and contact details on multiple social media and other platforms. Once a relationship is sufficiently developed, scammers start asking women for money so that the two of them can be together. Once the money is sent he makes up excuses as to why he could not come and brings up other troubles he has, all requiring money. Scammers then emotionally manipulate lovesick women, sometimes even using blackmail, to milk victims dry only to disappear without a trace.
Some red flags that can be used to spot a romance scam include the following:
– Immediately wanting to get of dating websites and onto email, telephone or Whatsapp
– Profiles disappearing off the web once a conversation has started.
– Claims of it being fate that the two found each other
– Immediately asking for pictures and sending ones themselves
– Asking for money
– Being quick to be affectionate
There are many scams out there, the most popular of which being:
1. Scams offering a large sum of money in exchange for some “help” usually requiring money. Once you have given the money, more money may be asked for to ensure that things run smoothly. Needless to say, you will never see your promised fortune.
2. Lottery scams saying you have won a ridiculous amount of money but your banking details are needed. Once the scammers have your details they will clean out your account instead of put money into it.
3.Emergency scams like that of the astronaut require you to help out with money in order to help someone out of a pickle. You are of course promised a reward for your help but of course, the reward will never come.
4. Investment scams that ask you to invest in a lucrative business venture, only to discover that the business does not exist.
5. Natural disaster relief scams where scammers set up false charities for real disasters. This one is tricky because it could seem legitimate. The best bet is to only donate through well-known charities.
Have you been involved in a scam recently?
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