Online Dating Sites and its Responsibilities

Online Dating Sites and its Responsibilities
Submitted by: Dee Valkerie, CEO Victim Resource Center


As of 2004, there were 8.4 Million fully paid subscribers to over 1,000 internet dating sites. In fact, 1% of all internet activity is dating and romance related. The market was worth $516 million in 2005. On many dating sites, up to one third of all profiles are fake, virtually ensuring that any user who communicates with more than two other members will have an approach made by a scammer. Assuming just a 1% response rate, there are going to be at least 84,000 people who each stand to loose a relatively modest $1,000 each. The total losses in this scenario will work out to be more than $84 million, and that is in just one year. This scale of fraud is frightening enough but the reality is much worse; the response rates are closer to 10% and the average losses are more than $2,500 per victim.

The Internet Crime Complaint Center (a US government funded research organization) reported 207,449 fraud complaints resulting in losses of $68 Million in 2004 alone. Bearing in mind that many victims never report these types of crimes to the authorities (because of embarrassment, associated bureaucracy and because the FBI etc can really do nothing to apprehend the Nigerian-based scammers), then the $3,000,000 (yes $3 M) loss that 250 members of an internet support group have reported (an average of $12,000 per victim as of May 2006) seems to be a more accurate report and a true indicator of the size of the problem.

This crime exploded after the Clinton Administration announced aid to Nigeria for setting up community resource centers to provide Internet access, training and support in response to the negative consequences on Nigeria, including decreased Foreign Direct Investments in the country and tainting of Nigeria's national image. The menace of these crimes and the recognition of the magnitude and gravity of the situation led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The legal instrument backing the Commission is the attached EFCC (Establishment) Act 2002 and the Commission has high-level support from the Presidency, the Legislature and key security and law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.

After the enforcement of the laws and the raids on numerous cafes, the criminals needed a new method of income. They returned to the cafes to find the perceived to be wealthy foreigners. With the influx of the online dating sites they found their victims, lonely, romantic, recently single and ripe for the picking. Using techniques of social profiling, hours are spent scouring the sites targeting singles or unhappily married men and women between the ages of 35 and 65.

They provide an ear to listen to all the woes of the victim’s life details, children’s names, life stories and deep dark secrets. They use stolen photographs from various modeling websites and make-up sad stories of lost loves and family members. Days pass with love letters and e-cards, sometimes even flowers, chocolates and teddy-bears. Using a deliberate psychological breakdown of their victim’s physical state through sleep deprivation (intentional phone calls in the middle of the night), guilt, harassment, and most importantly create an emotional bond. This bond has the victims left feeling completely at ease with their new companion. The promises of love and a future together have blinded the victim and most sense of reasoning has been eliminated.

The “Perfect Mate” has to suddenly travel for business to West Africa, or is already on assignment. He will take ill or have an accident and be placed in the hospital without a means to pay for his hospital bill. It has been documented that robbery, loss of all monies and identification or most recently the mate is being held hostage by kidnappers or the police. Preying on the undying love they share with their prey, they zoom in for the kill begging for money to be sent via Western Union.

In some cases the scammer has United States Postal Money Orders that they cannot cash in their country and will send them to the victim in exchange for wiring the money back for plane fare, and incidentals as well as promising to be on the next flight home. When the Money Orders are returned counterfeit; the victim is left accountable; scammer disappears or seems to not know anything about the origin. Money Orders are not the only type of financial instruments; stolen bank checks have also been used.

In many cases, there is an additional reshipping scam. Criminals use stolen credit cards to purchase items online, have them sent to their “loved one”, and they in turn will forward them onto the criminal. For merchants, the order is placed and shipped, the cardholder requests a credit from the issuing bank of the credit card and chargebacks are created. The authorities are notified and the victim is held accountable.

Heartbroken and near financial ruin the victim is left behind emotionally destroyed, embarrassed and lost without any recourse to find the person who shattered their lives. They return to the Internet to find assistance and discover the unbearable truth: they have been conned they may also find themselves solely responsible for any and all monies lost or face legal consequences.

Currently, there is little assistance from the Nigerian and Ghanian governments, in the past the police and local officials were bribed into looking the other way. A recent law was passed that no longer allows “night browsing” at cyber-cafes as well memberships are required. This deterrent is only a momentary hiccup for the criminals as they will readjust their times and tactics. Some cafes have already installed gas powered generators to power the computers during the overnight hours.

As is evident in the scams that have been recently been uncovered, the criminals are going for bigger monetary gains in a shorter time frame, many openly admit that they are running a bank scam with fake checks and money orders.

Example. Victim of one scam, suddenly is approached by a minister of a church, would she help send out letters to his flock. She receives a package of over 100 envelopes each containing counterfeit checks equaling $5,000 each. Should these victims receive these drafts each one is then liable for prosecution. The recipient of each of these drafts have been traced back to contact via the internet classified called Craig’s List (www.craigslist.org).

Understanding the Scammers

Former victims turned advocate throw themselves into the line of fire in order to obtain information. This unique method is called baiting or scambacking and has gained the following information for law enforcement regarding the nature and motives of the criminals themselves. As long as the baiter does not partake of the following behaviors such as threatening the scammer or hacking methods it is considered legal.

1. To gain the IP address of the criminals for further exploration by law enforcement agencies.
2. Acquire potential new victims identities from the criminal to warn of an impending con as well as recover valuable personal information that has been stolen such as bank accounts, credit card numbers and social security information.
3. Relieve an existing victim of some pressure from the criminal.
4. Acquire proof of the double identity for a victim to allow them a sense of closure. Many victims have a sense of hope and in some part of their psyche “What if they ARE real?”

The mentality is that the economy in these countries is very poor and the illusion that the media has painted is that Americans are wealthy. Those victims that act as an accomplice will not serve jail time or risk paying back the funds as it will be considered “internet fraud”. New recruits to the scamming rings use the following tactics:

1. Their economy is poor and the Americans can afford to lose the money because the media in their countries have them believing we are all very rich and live like movie stars.
2. Caucasians are the main target as we deserve it for the slave trade. This is revenge for their forefathers. (Unaware that the true culprits were their own government).
3. Many scammers are after Green Cards to the United States.
4. The criminals work in shifts at cyber cafes round the clock.
5. They are scripted and watched over in a “mafia” type manner, bosses and underlings, using variations on names in order to keep from scamming one another.
6. Use sociopathic behaviors and scare tactics such as blackmail and death threats.
7. Recruit “lovers” to be accomplices here in the states to help send out the checks or money orders or even merchandise that cannot be directly traced back to their country.

Prevention

Warnings. These will help to serve as a band-aid to protect the organization but still allows scammers to troll its members. Many websites have an “approval” period, during this time webmasters should monitor IP addresses and trace its origin. Any reflecting the high crime areas should be further investigated or blocked. If a scammer is reported the website should make every effort to remove the culprit and notify the victim of the outcome.

Constant newsletters to members notifying them of potential predators and the tell tale signs will keep the public educated. Education is an ongoing fear of the scammers, the more people that know about them the less chance they have of receiving a payoff.

Background checks can prove costly for both the site administrator and the members but by putting in tighter parameters on who can contact a member may help to deter criminal activity.

The most vulnerable to scammers are the Free dating sites and those that do charge a fee have the risk of stolen credit cards and banking information thus causing a chargeback. Chargeback, is the word that Internet merchants fear. A chargeback is what it's called when a transaction is reversed. In other words, rather than adding money to your account it is deducted. Chargebacks can occur for a wide variety of reasons, such as double-charging, credit card expiration, bank error and customer disputes.

Merchant concern about online credit card fraud and chargebacks is rising at a significant rate. According to the 2001 Online Fraud Report, conducted by Mindwave Research, it revealed that "41% of merchants say the issue of online credit card fraud is 'very serious' to their business." As e-commerce continues to flourish the number of instances of credit card fraud and chargebacks will continue to mount higher. It should go without saying that the need to take certain measures to reduce and virtually eliminate chargebacks and fraud is certainly paramount.

In order to prevent further losses merchants need to bring more security measures into place:

1. IP collection and Trace on every order. Any orders that do not log a logical IP address will be flagged for further investigation.
2. Phone verification to card holder by issuing bank to confirm transaction.

In conclusion, the best defense is to notify the members of various dating sites of these predators. Posting disclaimers that all IP addresses are being cataloged and traced will help to deter the criminals as well as give the victims some sense of pro-activity.