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Romance scams – a new type of scam that has emerged in recent years due to the rapid growth of the Internet – are rampant, with scammers using dating apps to "catch" lonely people and more and more older people falling victim to romance scams. According to the latest data released by the US Federal Trade Commission, nearly 70,000 people fell victim to romance scams in 2022, losing a total of $1.3 billion. "I need to pay a fee to get the inheritance, can you help?" "I need a new phone to continue chatting with you." These are all common terms for romance scams. Romance scams have become a common and serious problem in the United States and even around the world, and the police have to post messages on social networks at any time to remind people to be vigilant when using dating apps.
Why are older people more likely to fall for relationship scams?
The pandemic phase has become a time of frequent romance scams. In the summer of 2020, 69-year-old Kate Kleinert was home alone when she accidentally met a Norwegian doctor named Tony who claimed to be working in Iraq on Facebook. After several months of daily correspondence with Tony, Tony began to ask Kleinert for money or gifts. By December 2020, Kleinert had given Tony and his two so-called "kids" gift cards worth about $39,000. It wasn't until Tony "evaporated" one day that Kleinart found out that he had been deceived. The scam swallowed all of Kleinert's savings, her late husband's life insurance, her pension and Social Security income. She became a destitute old man. "The most painful thing is the loss of his love and the family I think will have." Kleinert said. To her disappointment, the police could not do anything about it.
Photo by Kate Kleinert.
"I've seen too many seniors mortgage their homes for love, take out all the money in their retirement accounts and borrow big sums from neighbors." Michael Delaney, a Chicago lawyer who specializes in geriatric law, told reporters. While young people are more likely to fall victim to online scams, experts say older people are the main victims of romance scams. The reason is simple: they usually have more money. Police learned earlier this year that New York fraudster Peaches Stergo swindled $2.8 million from an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor over a five-year period and used some of the funds to buy an apartment in Florida, a room at the Ritz-Carlton, gold bars, a Chevrolet Corvette and many luxury watches and clothing. According to the Federal Trade Commission, seniors 70 and older lost about $9,000 to romance scams in 2021, well above the average of $2,400 for all age groups.
"They lose more money because they have more money to lose." Amy Nofziger, director of an association that helps American retirees fight romance scams, said.
Do dating sites need to be held accountable?
Without communication networks as a medium, fraudsters are helpless, and it can be said that dating sites are to some extent "accomplices" of love scammers. So do dating sites need to take responsibility in romance scams?
Under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, online platforms, including dating sites and apps, are exempt from liability for content posted by their users. However, the Federal Trade Commission does not think so. It sued Match Group in 2019, accusing it of operating online dating platforms such as Match.com, Tinder and Hinge lacking basic information filtering mechanisms and allowing fraudsters to disguise themselves as regular daters and commit scams. While a Texas federal court dismissed the charges last year by invoking Section 230, Match Group has therefore heightened its vigilance against romance scams and partnered with the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI) to raise awareness among citizens and combat romance scams.
If an individual voluntarily falls into the trap of a romantic scam, that is, does not tell the police knowing that they have been scammed, the victim may be held legally liable. Glenda Seim, 81, who lives in Missouri, was sentenced to five years of probation last year after repeatedly sending money to an American who claimed to work in Nigeria but had no money to return home without telling federal police that she had been scammed.
What can victims do after being scammed?
Delaney told reporters that even after being scammed into taking all her savings, Sam was reluctant to admit that her online relationship was not real, and this kind of self-deception is extremely common among elderly victims. "Despite irrefutable evidence that their loved one had two faces and that the money was not used for what they said, they would defend that fraudster at all costs." Delaney said.
In this case, the victim's children become a force to stop the fraud. Such was the case with the Stegu scam. When the victim confessed to his son that he had suffered a romantic scam, even though all 62 checks he had written in the past four years were cashed, the victim's son chose to report the crime as soon as possible, and the police arrested Stegu after investigation. Often, the perpetrators of online scams cannot be caught, and the damage is almost irreparable.
While in most cases the victim is unable to recover the funds that have been scammed, the timely intervention of family members can prevent the scam from developing further. In the United States, if seniors are unwilling to admit that they were victims of a scam, family members can file an emergency petition for temporary custody and ask a judge to issue an order to immediately freeze the bank account. After Kleinert reported to the police that she had been scammed, law enforcement was unable to track down online scammers, especially those using foreign IP addresses, so Kleinert turned to young people around her and made all accounts private. Even so, the scammer reappeared one day and demanded more money from her, "which sent chills down my spine," Kleinert said.
News and image sources: The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, some images from the Internet
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