Shirley met James – a physics professor from England – on the internet. He seemed kind, compassionate and clever and sent her photographs of himself and his children. Shirley, 65, from Brisbane, was flattered. She fell in love and agreed to marry him. They had never met.
Little did Shirley know that James wasn’t called James at all. He wasn’t a professor and he wasn’t even English. No, “James” was a Nigerian conman, who duped Shirley out of £13,000, before she was alerted to his illicit motives by Kay, “a Texan pharmacist”, to whom she then also lent £13,000. The two men were working together. “I just wanted to meet like-minded people,” she said.
To all those lonely hearts out there, feeling particularly receptive as Valentine’s Day draws near: beware. The “romance scam” perpetrated by Nigerian fraudsters who exploit dating site members, is sweeping Australia, and the world. Brisbane police estimate it could affect thousands of people every day. In Britain, the online scam industry is said to make £3.5 billion a year.
This is the latest technique in confidence tricks to come out of Nigeria, where the notorious “419” scams began, where people were persuaded online to part with small sums of money, expecting huge returns. In this case, fraudsters tend to target middle-aged members of niche sites, where it is easier to tap in to the victim’s interests. They gain their trust before requesting money for emergencies such as an operation or flights. When they think they have drained one victim, they “dump” them, and move on to another.
In spite of efforts such as those of the Yahoo group, Romance Scams, which posts photographs of alleged scammers and copies of flirty e-mails, it can be difficult to detect a scammer. Dating sites are sometimes reluctant to highlight the problem because it generates bad publicity.
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There are a few things to look out for yourself, of course. “One of the first things is a request for money,” says Superintendent Brian Hay, of the Brisbane police.