On my own: I tried a romantic scam. I was lucky, he confessed.
He will friend request you on Facebook. A charming man who wants to chat. An American soldier, doctor, millionaire. He is on a mission, vacation, yacht. I tried him. I did not expect the admission that he offers romantic words for money because that is his job.
A secured man is looking for friendship and love. Or is offering both to you. Firstly.
Then his life starts to crumble incredibly. He gets robbed, detained, suddenly needs money for a visa, fees for withdrawing millions amounts, for a journey to the woman he is corresponding with.
It's spam that most people normally delete. The vast majority are like this. Because these fraudsters are not targeting you. They target that small vulnerable part of women who will believe them.
Business, in which billions are spinning worldwide
Fraudsters approach a large number of potential victims, so we almost all have such a friendship request in SPAM. Because someone will certainly get caught in such a huge quantity.
They wait with their refined network of lies and the ability to use your information against you.
On the other side of the keyboard, there is no soldier or millionaire in distress, but a poor person from one of the Asian countries, most often from India. In the heat, humidity, filth. They work in shifts.
Earnings are miserable.
The emotionally drained women (but even men fall for the bait of brides from abroad in need, it must be said) are predominantly caught in the net. Once the victims already invest time, emotions, or directly money into their virtual friend, they are reluctant to give him up. It takes weeks, months, and sometimes it takes even a year before the man asks the woman for money for the first time. A bond of trust is established, the virtual relationship works.
And no, victims can't be easily convinced that Mario, Charles or Brad do not exist. Sometimes it's shame at fault, other times it's cognitive dissonance, that is, an unacceptable contradiction between truth and their belief for them.
It's believable for them because:
- They arouse empathy, interest, and "remember" information about you, giving the impression that they are interested in your personal life, want to emotionally support you (they bring up your marital problems, loneliness, life events - they probably have well-written notes about everything)
- They mirror you... they agree, stand by you, give the impression of shared interests
- They want to teach you (for example, English)... oh, how cute!
- They maintain contact regularly as socially or psychologically deprived women need, writing with interest several times a day
- They also let you into their fictitious life story (fictitious family, job, worries)
Gradually, they gather information, build trust, find out what you're missing. The relationship deepens, sweet words, promises, fulfillment, for some women even needs that never got fulfilled.
And then the problems begin.
Drama on the stage!
They will fall silent or start having “troubles". In the mission, at work, suddenly need money. For a trip, to pay off a notary's pledge for inheritance (which they will share with you afterwards), mysterious military packages also come into play, from which customs duty must be paid, but they can earn you several million dollars. They send fake photographs from missions, fake documents about the need to pay, for example, from the UN. They wait, then push and blackmail. In the confession on the channel Jirka Explains Things, the deceived woman reported that then he started sending her recordings of curses, insults and threats.
On his own: He confessed!
Martins Anker asked me for friendship. Like everyone else, he was in line until once every two years I remember to delete this.
But why not try it?
I accepted him. As expected, he started the communication with the first message:
Hello my beautiful friend, how are you today? I hope the sun is shining brightly on your side of the world and brings you joy and warmth.
The first reports brought information that it was a Dutchman living in Italy.
Great, so you need money, right?
Even if I were swimming in a sea of financial troubles, do you really think I would ask a stranger on the Internet? I prefer to solve my own problems. I just introduced myself and hoped that you would do the same.
He embarked on a slightly passive-aggressive wave, on which we both actively slid for about an hour. He sensed that his endeavours would bear no fruit, but I didn't want to give up. So I started writing to him in English, with the assertion that I have a husband behind me, so I can't write in my native language. I then alternated languages. He got hooked again, maybe dissatisfied wives are on his list of suitable victims?
He was not deterred by information that these cases were under investigation by the police in our country, nor by the fact that I knew for sure, he is probably an Indian, a victim of organized crime. Why doesn't he do something else? We both alternated between a very toxic tone and a reconciliatory one. Interestingly, I would be interested in their manuals, although many times, the perception of the tone of communication can change with translation.
And then... he confessed.
Yes, it's a exchange of romantic words for money.
Something like a flirtatious chat for men. This is... satisfaction for women.
In his country, they don't have as many earning opportunities as we do.
The delays between messages were surprisingly regular, corresponding to the fact that is translating by a translator, or that he has more ongoing conversations on his monitor. We alternated languages. I presented him with my conjecture that he is from India, he neither confirmed nor denied it.
I said goodbye wishing all the best and that she finds a better job over time.
He thanked and said goodbye.
Good to know:
The biggest danger is also that with the development of deepfake technologies, scammers will become more and more believable. They will better modify photos, even fictional calls will be believable.
Be careful what you write about yourself in Facebook discussions
It's not always about romance. Scammers can also identify victims in financial distress, for example from what you write in discussion groups. They then offer you extremely profitable investments, cryptocurrencies or online betting in a private message. The goal? To extort an "initial investment" from you.
You won't see the money again
The fraud, even if you report it to the police, is unenforceable. No one is going to compensate you for the damage at this point. The money is cleverly transferred to foreign accounts or into virtual wallets for cryptocurrencies.
Where to seek help?
If you are already a victim of fraud, report everything to the police. If you find out that a victim is someone close to you, the situation is more complicated. The first basic point, however, is for the victim to acknowledge that they have become a victim of fraud.
Some cases really go to the extreme, where women drain their accounts, take out loans or, in the worst cases, steal money. There was recently a case in the Czech Republic where a woman took money from her employer and sent it to such an account.
You can share your experiences at:
* Facebook group American Soldier - Romantic Scam
* Discussion on Emimino website is full of these experiences from the perspective of family, who are struggling to dissuade the victim from the scammer
* Video from Jirka, who explains things is interesting with the brave confession of a deceived woman.
Falling in love beyond any logic?
It's a sophisticated business. Whether such admission is in their manuals, or he just had a bad day, I really don't know. But it's just a small proof that foreign hotties, asking you for friendship in broken Czech, are not real.
If I were an extremely unloved and disappointed woman, would I succumb? I don't judge the victims, as Jiří Burýšek rightly pointed out in his YouTube documentary, they are often women, who haven't even heard their first name for a long time, let alone in some nice form.
Can these frauds be fought? Due to a sophisticated network of both communication and finance, it is very difficult for now.
Source: author's article
