Almost 250,000 people have been duped by online dating scams recently.
Thousands of lovelorn British people seeking the love of their life have been duped out of approximately £35 million while using dating sites, according to recent research data.
250,000 emotionally unstable British have been manicured by conmen on online dating sites in techniques not that dissimilar to paedophiles trying to groom kids.
Researchers estimate that with the increase in the number of online dating sites and with the rise in the number of users, the numbers are going to increase dramatically.
Scammers pick on possible victims before initiating a romantic association, then defraud considerable amounts of cash out of their “beloved” victims during a few romantic months.
Professor Whitty, a researcher at Leicester University, said that potential scammers upload a fraudulent profile on dating sites and construct a devoted relationship with their selected victim, nurturing them while finding out if they can lay their hands on any money.
It appears they form an intimate relationship, often quite emotional, and then manage to engender great trust before pouncing on them. The victims fall for the intimacy and are more often than not obsessed by the scammers, who offer quite positive profiles.
The fraudsters tell them they have fallen in love with them and the victims feel they are in heaven.
Professor Whitty revealed that they test the ground to see if the person is prepared to give cash to them. Often this tentative approach takes place through the offering of small gifts, just to test the reaction.
This type of gesture increases, with some fraudsters going for more highly priced gifts, such as airplane tickets.
The research team said they had heard a great deal from individuals stationed at airports saying that they had seen possible victims waiting for lovers to arrive at airports, then only to find out they were not arriving.
The results of the survey indicated that men were as vulnerable as women and conmen and women were just as keen to go for gays and non gays.
