Lovestruck Britons are losing $50m a year to dating-site con artists

When online sweethearts become malign Valentines

WHEN John met Judith, it seemed clear that they were a perfect match. Both were devout Christians. He was a widower, she a divorcee. After finding each other on an online dating site in May 2015, they exchanged heartfelt e-mails. John, an interior designer from London, wanted to meet in person but had travelled to South Africa for his father’s funeral. While there, he was robbed and defaulted on an expensive design contract. Judith stumped up £140,000 ($175,000) before realising that she had been scammed: “John” was the invention of a fraudster.

Last year online-dating swindles cost Britons a record £39m, according to a new report by the City of London Police. Six out of ten victims are women, and two-thirds are aged 40-69. Few of the fraudsters are ever identified, let alone caught, but most seem to be working in organised gangs in west Africa or eastern Europe, according to Neil Masters of Victim Support, a charity. Some operations resemble call centres, conducting detailed background research, composing scripts and working several targets at a time. A fake emergency, especially en route to an in-person rendezvous, is the most common way to solicit money. On average, just 30 days elapse between initial contact and first payment. Not all victims report their losses, but those that do have parted with £10,000 on average.

Britons are particularly vulnerable to such honeytraps. Among Europeans, only the Swiss spend more per person on online matchmaking services, according to Leading Dating Sites, a market-research firm. The English language makes them accessible to con men from around the world. Britons are big on online shopping, including internet banking, so making electronic payments to strangers is second nature. And they may even be unusually susceptible to hard-luck stories: Britain is the best-ranked European country in the World Giving Index, a measure of generosity produced by the Charities Aid Foundation.

Victim Support and other charities are trying to raise awareness of the problem. And, conscious of the damage such scandals could do to their business, dating sites are doing more to protect their members. Some parse their messages to flag up early declarations of love as a warning sign, and scan profile pictures to check if they have been posted elsewhere on the internet. That might catch a few larcenous Lotharios. But nothing will be as effective as what Mr Masters calls “the golden rule”: never give money to an online paramour, no matter how charming.

Source: The Economist Magazine