PressSplit
Symbolic image © Marijan Murat/ dpa
A 67-year-old woman from Lüdenscheid fell for several so-called love scammers. According to a police statement, the love scammers pulled out all the stops to rip off the elderly woman using every trick in the book – and invented one false story after another to fake financial hardship and collect money.
Lüdenscheid – The contacts were made via a well-known dating platform on the Internet. The first fraudster pretended to be a Syrian doctor. In order to be able to cancel a contract with a hospital, he first asked the woman from Lüdenscheid for money. He then allegedly contacted her from Turkey to get money for documents he needed. Shortly afterwards, he reported that he was being held in Berlin. In order to get a suitcase containing 1.6 million euros, he had to transfer money first.
Love scammer number two asked the 67-year-old for help to pay his son’s school fees in the USA. Then again, he needed money to be discharged from an Israeli hospital.
The story that love scammer number three told the woman from Lüdenscheid online sounded even more bizarre. The scammer tricked his gullible victim into believing that there was an emergency on a ship in the Indian Ocean. Because there was a crack in the bow of the ship, the ship could only move very slowly. But pirates were after them and they were only 400 kilometers away. This scammer was apparently only after addresses in which to deposit valuables.
According to the police report, the woman from Lüdenscheid did not comply with this request. However, within three months, the elderly woman transferred a very large total amount to nine different accounts and passed on the numbers of various prepaid cards.
The police repeatedly warn of love or romance scammers who search for their victims on social networks or on dating platforms on the Internet and through newspaper advertisements. The report states: “It is typical that they talk about love and marriage very quickly – within days or hours. In addition, they always get into alleged financial difficulties. The perpetrators play with the feelings of their victims. Once they have found someone who will transfer money, more and more emergencies arise.”
Again and again, victims have allowed themselves to be driven into financial ruin, taking out loans, borrowing money from acquaintances, selling valuables – even though they have never met their lover in person. “At the very latest, when money is involved, those affected should be cautious. Lovers should under no circumstances forward packages or money. They are thereby becoming accomplices of criminals and may be committing a crime themselves.”
