Incredible facts
In 2009-2010, a British woman named Kate Roberts gave $130,000 to a man she met on a dating site. He was allegedly an American soldier named Mark Ray Smith. Believing Smith to be her soulmate (he e-mailed her photos, sent handwritten letters, and even spoke to her on the phone), she was eager to meet him in real life. However, he explained to her that “you need to buy a way out of the army”.
After he received the right amount of money, their communication stopped.
Unfortunately, stories like this are more common than one might imagine. According to a new study by professors from the University of Leicester and the University of Westminster in the UK, more than 200,000 Britons have been scammed in this way as a result fraudulent activities on the Internet, when instead of a promising romance and feelings, people were left with an empty bank account and internal emptiness.
The researchers found that 52 percent of those surveyed experienced this type of fraud, where criminals created fake questionnaires using photos of other people, often soldiers or models, and then, after a long period of courtship, they pretended to urgently need money and asked for help.
An online survey of 2,028 people was conducted in July with the help of the consulting company YouGuv with the support of the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA). The agency also notes that more than 1 million people know a person who has been a victim of such Internet fraud.
Representatives of the same agency say that between 2010 and 2011, the number of victims of this type of fraud in the UK was close to 600. Of these, 203 people lost more than $7,000. However, in some cases, the financial losses are much greater. SOCA emphasizes that it has encountered cases where victims lost $375,000 or more. “In addition to money, victims were losing what they thought was a true romantic relationship,” says Monica Whitty, the study's lead.
“We believe that the injuries sustained as a result of such scams are even worse than any other, because a person gets a double whammy,” she continues. In fact, in her opinion, the survey did only half the job, because many victims of such fraud do not tell their stories out of fear or fear of ridicule.