More and more people are falling victim to all kinds of online fraud.
How exactly does scamming work and how can you protect yourself?
Scamming is English and means something like “fraud” or “swindle”. There are a number of such scams, the victims are promised a wide variety of promises if they pay the perpetrator an “advance payment” (payment of money). Among other things, inheritances, romantic relationships and / or significantly higher repayments are promised. Lonely and elderly people who use dating platforms are particularly affected. They make friends with their counterparts over a long period of time and are eventually asked for money. It is unclear how many women and men fall victim to this scam in Bavaria or Germany.
In a multi-million dollar online dating fraud, the Munich Regional Court I imposed several years’ imprisonment for three defendants on October 11, 2018 (reference: www.merkur.de). A German was sentenced on Thursday to three years and nine months in prison, a Nigerian to two years and six months and a Ghanaian to three years and two months of juvenile imprisonment. Together with other perpetrators, you have deceived numerous users of dating platforms on the Internet with false profiles and cheated out of a lot of money. A total of more than one million euros in booty was collected (www.merkur.de). The defendants were also sentenced to substantial compensation payments totaling more than 270,000 euros to the victims.
According to the indictment, the largest part was paid for by a woman from Starnberg who met a US soldier named Thomas Stabler on a platform who did not exist. In addition to a transfer of 380,900 euros, she handed over an alleged lawyer in the Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich an additional 128,000 euros in cash (www.merkur.de).
What can I do in the event of a scamming incident?
You should change your email address and telephone number in order to be protected from further fraud. Contact a lawyer specializing in victim law and criminal law and file a complaint.
Lawyer and specialist lawyer for criminal law Christian Steffgen has received numerous assignments as public defender and victim support since 2001, ranging from simple stealth to murder trials. He is constantly training in victim law and criminal law and has been among others for 15 years. also commissioned as victim lawyer for the “Weisse Ring”.
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