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Romance Scam

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We trolled an online love scammer to see how far Mr Too Good to be True would go

Articles and media
LaraC
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Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:39 am
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We trolled an online love scammer to see how far Mr Too Good to be True would go

Postby LaraC » Mon Jul 24, 2017 5:03 am

Article on SCMP (South China Morning Post) on May 2017. SCMP is a largest English publication in Hong Kong.
They used LoveStruck Hong Kong (paid service) to bait the scammer and reported the communications in details leading up to where the scam took a place. It is a well written report... followed by usual ugly victim shaming & blaming comments on their comment section.


Few things to comment from the article:
Despite warnings, English-speaking women in Hong Kong continue to fall prey to online romance scams.
Problem about warnings is that people can't relate themselves to the warnings. Whom to be blamed? I say it is the media for first hand. Media portrays victims as extremely ignorant and victim shaming culture fuels into that wrong portrayal and thus no one thinks warnings apply to them. Before SCMP or any media outlet claims "despite the warning" (like if they properly warned the society?) they should really look into who the victims are and write true storyies to help deliver proper warnings to the society.

I remember one police officer in Australia who has devoted to catching Roman Scammers once said, there is only one type of person who won't get scammed (by Romance Scam), that is unkind people. They don't try to help anyone thus they never get scammed.

While it is true for romance scams, there are other scams to scam 'unkind' people and those are called investment scams. Investment scams don't play with your conscious but plays with your ego. Scams are prepared to trick every person from every walk of life yet, people (see victim blaming comments) want to believe they are exempted from being fooled - thus scams continue.
When contacted, Lovestruck said Dr John had passed their checks with his Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Lovestruck said they reported his fake profiles, but at the time of writing, he remained there, big and bold, on Facebook.
Despite pointing out to Lovestruck the numerous suspicious “widower” profiles, they continue to pop up. Jackson isn’t surprised. “They’re running a business too. These sites claim they do all the checks, but the reality is they have few staff and operate with impunity. They’re unregulated and who are you going to complain to? This is a global thing. They make it look all slick and polished and protected, but it’s not.”
TRUE. I found one suspicious profile, which has been up there for ages and contacts you right after you started using LoveStruck HK. I think his username is Welshy or something, indicating he is from Wales. (I don't use their service anymore so I forgot his username!) It is another 'too good to be true' profile he is a medical doctor and when I reserve scanned his photo it hit his website of medical centre he is running in Hong Kong. This guy on the photo does exist and funnily enough I bump into him on the street every so often - including today! Do I really think this medical doctor with established carrier has been around on LoveStuck HK for ages, using site 24/7 (his online status is always 'green'), striking every women who newly comes on the website?? Well maybe he is a weirdo who knows ... but I seriously doubt. LoveStruck HK says they verified his profile and it is "LinkedIN proved", meaning his profile on LoveStruck matches with what he says who he is on LinkedIN. But how do they run a check?


Read the full story:
http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/article/2 ... o#comments

We trolled an online love scammer to see how far Mr Too Good to be True would go

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