"Romance Scam" Alert

In the last few months the Sauk County Sheriff's Department has noticed a rise in reports of a type of internet fraud called "romance scams." Please read through this and share it with friends and family, especially if they utilize these types of sites. While the internet can be a great tool, there are plenty of folks out there who will seek to take advantage of others for their own gain. Thank you.

Sheriff Chip Meister

In this type of fraud a scammer locates their victims on dating websites such as Match.com, Badoo.com, Areyouinterested.com, Okcupid.com, Plentyoffish.com, Christiansingles.com, Facebook.com and many other similar sites. The victim has often posted in their profile what they are looking for in a man or woman. The scammer will contact the victim and pose as the ideal mate for the victim. The scammer will often say they are in the military or doing business overseas. The scammer will "sweet talk" the victim and tell the victim they are in love with them despite the fact they have never met and seem to "fall in love" very quickly. Conversations between the scammer and the victims is usually through emails, text messages or instant messaging, such as Yahoo chat or Facebook chat. In some cases there may be phone calls. In a few recent cases when a victim has become suspicious, gifts, such as flowers, were sent to the victim's home.

The relationship will start with small talk and general conversation until the scammer tells the victim they have strong feelings for them. The victims often overlooks things that would normally have raised red flags because the victims want to believe this perfect match for them is real. Almost all of these frauds are conducted from outside the United States. In most cases the frauds are conducted from an African county such as South Africa, Nigeria or Ghana.

The scammer will often ask the victims for money. The scammer often tells the victim their credit cards will not work in a foreign country or they will pay the victims back when they get back to the United States. The requests for money are often framed with emergencies such as the victim being told the scammer was involved in a car accident and needs money to pay for medical care or the scammer was mugged.

The scammer will most likely continue to ask the victim for money until the victim has no more money to send. In most cases the scammer will ask the victim to use Western Union, Money Grams or GreenDot cards to send the money. The scammer will then ask the victim to help them. Sometimes scammers will ask the victim to help them run a business or charity. There are four dominant frauds used at this stage.

1) The victim will receive a large amount of checks in the mail from the scammer. The scammer will tell the victim they need help with a business' payroll or accounts receivable. The scammer will give the victim a list of names and addresses of where the checks are to be sent. The scammer will direct the victim to fill out the checks and send the checks using UPS, FedEx or the US Post Office. The scammer is given a UPS, FedEx or the US Post Office account number to use in sending the checks. The account numbers are stolen. The checks are counterfeit checks and are used with victims in other internet frauds.

2) The scammer tells the victim they need help with customers paying the scammer's business. The scammer will tell the victim because they are out of country that they cannot receive payments to their business. The scammer will have money orders sent to the victim and ask the victim to cash the money orders and then resend the money to them (out of country) using money orders. The money orders the victim receives are from victims of other internet scams. The scammer is using the victim as a reshipping agent. While the victim of another internet scam may be tipped off sending the money to South Africa or Niger other victims may feel more at ease sending money to someone in Wisconsin.

3) The scammer will ask the victim to accept packages at the victim's residence for the scammer. The scammer will tell the victim the packages are for their business or some charity the scammer is involved with. The scammer will ask the victim to repackage the items and send them to the scammer outside the county. These items are bought online with stolen credit cards. The scammer needs the victim because security software for many online retailers would flag an order with a shipping address outside the United States so the scammers need an address in the United States to send the items to. The victim is used as an intermediary in the fraud.

4) The scammer will ask the victim for personal information. This personal information can include the victims full name, date of birth, address, phone number, social security number, mother's maiden name and other such information. Once the scammer has this information the scammer will open credit accounts in the victim's name and begin to use that account. Sometimes the victim will be asked to open a bank account and provide the scammer with access to the account. The scammer will then use the account to process stolen checks and conduct wire transfers with other internet frauds. Many times the victim will be held responsible for the money lost by the bank from these accounts.

As with all internet frauds, the best way to avoid a romance scam is to meet the person face to face. There is nothing wrong with dating online, but date people from your general area and go on a date. If you send money or provide services to a person you have only spoken with online or on the phone you have no way to know if that person is real. This tactic also works for Craig's List type scams. For example if you are looking for a car, buy it from someone in an area where you can go look at the car before money changes hands. Meet the seller in person. A good rule of thumb is if it seems too good to be true, it most likely is, no matter if it's the rich good looking special forces soldier who just contacted you on Match.com (of course he is stationed overseas but will be returning to Wisconsin), or if it's the guy who wants to sell his 2017 Porsche for $5,000 because he is going through a divorce and doesn’t want his wife ex-wife to get it (of course this guy is on a trip right now so he will ship you the car). A good hint is if someone you have never met in real life starts telling you they love you there may be cause for concern.

There is little any United States law enforcement agency can do about romance scams that are conducted from outside the United States but we can try to minimize the damage if we are able to stop them in the early stages. Due to the intimate nature of this type of fraud many times the victims are very embarrassed about what happened and may not report it. The scammers in this type of fraud are masters at selecting victims and knowing what to say. If you or someone you know has any questions about what could be a romance scam please call the Sauk County Sheriff's Department. Stopping these frauds before they begin is the best defense.