Staying Safe from Romance Fraud

17/08/2018

Romance fraud is an emerging threat, the police are seeing thousands of victims across the UK, this type of fraud costs victims over £90m annually and this is a conservative estimate.

Fraudsters who commit these offences are often based abroad, with offenders often operation in African and Asian areas. They often pose as engineers, oil rig workers, doctors and military. Once they make contact they usually ask the victim to move from the social media/dating site they meet onto other platforms such as WhatsApp/Hangouts. They also ask for the victim to send money via MoneyGram, Western Union and other transfer services, they also ask for I Tune or other gift cards to be purchased. Regarding the romance fraud advice, you can often check a photo using reverse imaging, this helps check if the photos have been used previously, Google and Tin Eye are companies that you can perform a reverse image search.

You can also check the validity of an ISP address using this link - https://scamalytics.com/ip

Links to further information and guidance

• https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/dating-fraud
• https://blog.tineye.com/verify-profiles/
• Banks have something in place called the Banking Protocol, this may be of use to older family relatives. The banking industry have a duty of care to protect customers, especially vulnerable customers against fraud. If you feel your bank has being unreasonable you can make a complaint. When someone is coerced into making a fraudulent transaction it is known as Authorised Push Payment, more details can be found on this link: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/what-to-do-if-youre-the-victim-of-a-bank-transfer-app-scam
• Cyber enabled fraud - https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/central/advice/fraud/met/little-book-of-cyber-scams-2.0.pdf
• For any family members who use the internet it may be an idea to look at the final two web links below, you can check how secure your passwords are and if your e-mail has been breached by clicking on the appropriate links: Check your details: -
  • e-mail https://haveibeenpwned.com/
  • Passwords https://howsecureismypassword.net/
• Identity Theft- Identity theft | ICO
• Advice regards Money Mules, see here - https://www.moneymules.co.uk/
• Why Do Scammers Ask For iTunes or Google Play Gift Cards? (againstscammers.com)

Predatory Marriage

Predatory Marriage is the practice of intentionally targeting and marrying a vulnerable (often older) person in order to gain access to their estate and assets upon their death. Predatory Marriage relies on grooming and coercion to exert control over another person to persuade them to marry for financial, material or other gain. The following 7 minute briefing will take you through what is predatory marriage, legislation, what the signs are and what to do if you are concerned someone is a victim of this type of abuse.

7 Minute Briefing - Predatory Marriage

You can also read hear more about this topic here:

Predatory Marriage - Safeguarding Matters - Ann Craft Trust