Dimitri B. writes about online dating safety and modern scam tactics. With a background in international communication and psychology, he focuses on practical ways people can protect themselves in digital relationships. Originally from Ukraine, he now lives in Canada.
The loss of a partner to death or divorce is one of the toughest emotional events one can go through. It does not only initiate grief or sadness but also a strong sense of solitude, the desire to be attached to another, and insecurity regarding the future. Scammers use this to their advantage. Divorce and widowhood are periods in the lives of individuals that make them extremely vulnerable to exploitation.
Romance scams are founded upon deception and trust. The scammer’s fake profiles use stolen photos and write complex lies to make the victim feel like an important person. The scammers are patient, waiting sometimes months or weeks to gain the victim’s trust before making the move. It starts off slowly—messages full of compliments, good mornings, and the guarantee that the love will last an eternity. The victim does not even realize what has hit them. Due to emotional manipulation, the victim easily falls victim to scams.
The worst part? Victims often don’t realize that they’re being swindled until it’s too late. At that point, they can end up losing thousands of dollars, having their private information stolen, or being tricked into making illicit financial transactions.
The Rise of Romance Scams
Romance scams have taken off in recent times, with more and more people becoming the victim of the scams. The rise of social media and online dating sites has given the scams an easier-than-ever vehicle through which to find unsuspecting targets. The thieves use stolen photos to create fake profiles and then spin highly sophisticated deceptions to gain the targets’ trust.
Romance scams can be financially ruinous. Some people have lost over $100,000 to tcammers. The Federal Trade Commission states that nearly 70,000 people fell victim to a romance scam in 2022. Older Americans are particularly vulnerable because they are more likely to have assets and sometimes are less sophisticated about scams online. The Protecting Older Consumers Report 2022-2023 of the Federal Trade Commission showed that older adults lost nearly $240 million to romance scams last year.
Romance scams are a growing problem that has witnessed the rise of reported cases every year. The more complex the scams are getting, the greater the need to be properly educated and careful to protect yourself and your family from becoming the victim of such malicious tactics.
How Language Barriers Make Victims More Vulnerable to Romance Scams
Communication is essential to every relationship, but if the con artist uses another culture or another language to fake the relationship, there’s an automatic built-in cover-up to explain away the inconsistencies. If the communications are unnatural or a bit off-kilter, then the difference in the language will be blamed. If the grammar is poor, the explanation will be that they are not proficient in English. If the refusal to take a phone or video call follows, the explanation will be that they don’t want to use a foreign tongue.
Such excuses complicate the identification of the red flags. Instead of questioning the contradiction, the victim will be sympathetic or understanding, thinking that the new love partner has only a problem communicating. The con artist uses this to buy time and preserve the emotional hook while scheming the next move.
Another issue is that the victim will also have to cope with the issues surrounding the language, especially if the victim does not speak the language that the scammer has used. This makes it easier to manipulate words, confuse them, or mislead them to doubt the meaning that the victim has derived from the dialogue. No one, be it old, educated, or smart, can be deceived using these strategies.
How Scammers Use Translation Tools to Appear Genuine
Earlier, scams were easily recognized because the emails used to be full of spelling mistakes and poor grammar. However, with the use of translation programs and AI-written content, scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated and convincing.
They employ pre-written love letters that are copied and pasted into translation programs to create the illusion that their words are emotional and poetic. The programs allow them to write to individuals in other languages easily, making it that much harder to catch the scams. An American widow will think that she’s communicating with an English-speaking European businessman but will be talking to an impersonator using Google Translate.
Scammers also tailor the words that they use to the victim. If the victim is an older widow, the words will be courteous and formal. If the victim is younger, the words will be informal and endearing. This accommodation makes the words that much more convincing, making the possibility of the scam being successful greater. Taking heed of indicators of romance scams, such as unusual requests for money or erratic means of communicating, will enable one to identify fake messages.
Common Language-Related Tactics Used by Scammers
Another trick that scammers often employ is copy-pasting the messages into other languages. The scammers employ a group of pre-written scripts that are used again and again with some alteration based upon the victim’s response. If the scammers are talking to more than one victim at a time, sometimes the wrong message gets sent that reveals the fact that the copy-pasted script is being used. Flag indicators of romance can be employed to find if the scammer is using the copy-pasted script.
Another technique employed is the fabrication of fake multilingual profiles. The scammer will pretend to be trilingual or bilingual, having originated from one region but currently based elsewhere. This will be employed to conceal linguistic abnormalities or poor grammar. The scammer will also pretend to have an accent and use that as an excuse to avoid video or voice calls.
Poor grammar and unnatural phrasing remain the norm in the majority of scams, where scammers are overly reliant on translation programs. The communications will be overly formal, overly mechanical, or off-beat in some uncharacteristic manner. If the fake native English-speaker commits unusual gaffes or strings words together uncharacteristically, something is wrong.
Steering away from real-time conversations is another strong red flag. The scammer will try to avoid having real-time conversations via a voice call, video call, or voice message. They will use excuses like there’s something wrong with the camera, that the microphone has gone wrong, or that there’s no internet connection where they are. The fact is that the scammers do not want to expose themselves in real-time conversations.
Scammers Demand Payment
Among the most common tactics used by romance scams is asking the victim to transfer funds. The perpetrators prefer channels like cryptocurrency payments or bank wires because the payments are, to some degree, anonymized and cannot be easily reclaimed once made. Throughout 2022, a staggering 60% of payments to romance scams were made via cryptocurrency payments or bank wires.
Both gift cards and payment apps are employed by romance scammers. Gift cards accounted for 7% of the payments to romance scams in 2022, while payment apps took 3%. The two are employed because they provide an easy and quite untraceable channel through which the scammers are paid.
They typically gain the victim’s trust through stolen or fake identities. Once the victim trusts them, they induce urgency through the creation of an emergency situation, such as a medical emergency or travel issue, to force the victim to transfer money or gift them. It is essential to be cautious and suspicious about receiving a money request from an online acquaintance, regardless of the situation.
How to Identify a Scammer Using Translation Tools
You can’t always catch a scammer, but there are signs that can be used to help determine if something doesn’t seem quite right. If the messages are overly impersonal and seem to be copied from a script, then chances are that that is what they are doing. A quick test to employ is to Google a sentence from the message. If it appears in multiple sources, then there’s a high likelihood that they are using a script.
Another sign is if suddenly the writing style of the other person changes. If the writing is poor to start but then perfectly composed messages are sent afterward, then the other person is likely using translation programs, or possibly there are multiple scammers taking turns messaging. If a new acquaintance suddenly befriends you, this can be a sign that it’s a scam because scammers will start off like this.
Questioning them regarding the native tongue that they claim to speak can also indicate dishonesty. If they are French but are unable to pronounce common French words or are unable to answer cultural-related questions, then it’s quite an obvious sign that they are dishonest.
Another trick that comes in handy is to check their own social media and dating presence. A genuine individual will have an online presence consisting of older posts, conversations, and photos that are tagged. If the account seems too idealistic, has limited friends, or was created a short time ago, then it’s fake.
What to Do If You Suspect a Romance Scam
If something feels off, listen to your intuition. Cut off communications with the person right away, and don’t give them any information about yourself. The longer you communicate, the more time they will have to manipulate you. It is crucial that you take steps to safeguard yourself from romance scams.
Report them to the social media website or the same dating service or website where you learned about them. Most websites take romance scams seriously and will remove fake profiles to safeguard other users.
If payment has already been made, inform your bank or other financial institution to find out if the payment can be canceled. If your information was released, monitor your accounts for suspicious transactions.
Discuss what’s occurring with a trusted individual. Scammers like to leave the victim isolated, but having an outside perspective can allow you to gain some clearer vision. The help of family and friends can help to encourage the steps to further protect yourself against romance one.
How to Protect Yourself from Language-Based Scams
The best thing to do is to be cautious developing online relationships, especially with people whom you don’t know in real life. Get to know them gradually and be watchful about anyone who comes on strong about love or strong feelings within a short time.
If the other person does not want to take a video or a phone call, that’s a big red flag. Real relationships are about real conversations, and anyone keeping them away has something to hide.
Do your research. Run reverse image searches to see if their photos are used elsewhere online. Search them by name and information to see if it matches what you’ve learned about them. If something doesn’t add up, look deeper.
Do not ever send anyone money. No matter how convincing the story seems to be, real love does not involve money. The scams employ medical crises, travel costs, or investment proposals as excuses to send money, but they are all common ploys. The victim’s lack of knowledge about finance is exploited by the culprits.
Trust your intuition. If something doesn’t seem quite right to you, then it likely isn’t. Emotional manipulation is how scammers operate, so remaining rational and questioning everything will protect you.
The Connection Between Romance Scams and Human Trafficking
Whereas the emotional and financial toll of the romance scams are commonly recognized to most people, the connection to human trafficking is less commonly understood. The perpetrators themselves are sometimes victims of human trafficking or victims themselves, compelled to work under abusive conditions with limited sleep, no pay, and no freedom to travel.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this issue, leaving people financially devastated and desperate to hope. Online scams that promise well-paying jobs overseas are employed to ensnare the vulnerable. The vulnerable are particularly targeted based on age, education, or intelligence or specific sets of skills such as English or Chinese.
They are tricked and trafficked to safe zones known as “fraud dens,” which are managed by Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO). There, they are forced to work under harsh conditions to repay their allegedly incurred “debt” through physical and sexual exploitation, movement control, and sometimes hunger.
Understanding the relationship between human trafficking and romance scams underscores the necessity to be careful and vigilant. Identifying the signs and reporting the abnormalities will aid in countering these reprehensible crimes and rescue vulnerable individuals from being the victim of such exploitation.
Conclusion
Romance scams are financially catastrophic but emotionally devastating. Divorcees and, particularly, widows are particularly susceptible to online fraud scams because they are hungry for companionship, connection, and a fresh start. The fact that this is the case is well known to the scammers, and they exploit it to devise intricate deceptions to gain trust and exploit vulnerability.
By understanding how these scams are executed and the signs to look out for, you can protect yourself and others from becoming victims. Paying attention to these signs will allow individuals to avoid becoming victims of these scams. Be careful about inconsistencies, and never let feelings blur your judgment where online relationships are concerned. Love is about happiness and security, not about fear and losing money.
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