Nigerian online romance scams: Australian victim manages to recover some of her money after police investigation
Police have helped a Perth woman recover some of her money after she sent a scammer hundreds of thousands of dollars in a Nigerian romance scam online according to a report from ABC Australia.
It is understood she has recovered about $100,000, which equates to about 40% of the money she sent to the overseas scammer. The woman is the first known Western Australia romance fraud victim to get any money back from an overseas scammer.
The victim (51) told a local radio that she started a relationship with a man she met on the internet calling himself Gary in 2013 on the online dating website RSVP.
Unknown to her the photo had been stolen off of the internet website and the scammers (from Nigeria) had created a fake profile for Gary. The scammers sent her messages of love and romance followed by requests for money for a business-related crisis.
The victim said "We developed a relationship online fairly rapidly, and soon he started requesting money and I sent those sums of money after about six weeks," she said.
"I was simply looking for companionship after my divorce and never thought there would be such cruel con artists looking to capitalize on loneliness”.
"When he was wanting me to send his money back via me, I realized there was something really wrong here and asked some questions, I ended up seeking advice from the police, who confirmed it was a scam."
Detectives said that they were working with Nigerian police authorities, who arrested a suspect and later charged him with obtaining money under false pretences. Australian police said the scammers often worked in syndicates and it was their fourth arrest working with the Nigerian police and that there was an ongoing good relationship between them.
Police said they had a breakthrough in the case when they found fingerprints on a document the Nigerian scammer sent to Jenny, which matched a person known to the Nigerian police.
Online Romance Scam victim feels 'lucky' and overjoyed!
The scam victim said she had already resigned herself to the fact that she would never see the money again and was overjoyed when the bank agreed to refund some of the money she sent to the conman. Now the victim can’t believe she fell for the scam.
FCOL anti romance scam expert said today “This lady has been very lucky to get money back. We can only restate our previous advice, never send money to somebody you have met on a dating or social media site and never met in person, more advice can be found on our blogs.
Typically, but not exclusively, romance scammers claim to their victims that they are westerners rather than Nigerian and working abroad as engineers or military personnel. Often when grooming their victims they will tell them very early in the relationship that they are in love with them and have met their ‘soul mate’.
If you register the person you have met on a dating site FCOL can tell you if they are in a relationship with another of our many clients and a potential romance scammer
No comments:
Post a Comment