Romance fraudsters have scammed £5.3 million from victims in Essex
They prey on people looking for romance
People looking for love in Essex have been tricked into handing over more than £5 million to romance scammers in the past two years.
145 cases were reported to Essex Police in 2020 with more than £3 million lost – an average of more than £20,000 per victim.
In 2021, there was a significant jump in reported cases with 234 victims coming forward, with £2.3 million of losses.
The frauds are mainly the work of organised criminal gangs, many of whom are based overseas.
They groom victims, gaining their trust over many through online chats and phone calls, armed with a made up back story designed to make the victim empathise with them.
Some of these scams were carried out over the period of a year or longer.
The back story and longevity of the fraud is designed to make requests for money appear more legitimate and justifiable.
The scammers then use the personal information the victim shares about their life and family to manipulate or even threaten them, asking them for cash and gifts, or to launder money through their bank accounts.
Lisa Mills, Senior Fraud Manager at Victim Support, says these scams are getting more common: "For the last five years I've been in this role, we've seen it rising steadily year on year. Clearly at the moment with the pandemic situation, that has just exacerbated the issue because we know that fraudsters will just exploit any situation.
"Clearly more of us have been at home. More people have got increasing confidence about going online and trying online dating. And sadly for some people, as we've seen from the figures, that doesn't always end well for them."
She also says they severely impact the victims, both financially and mentally: "The effects are multiple. You have the obvious financial loss that people suffer - I don't like to place an emphasis on value because all amounts are devastating, but we've we've gone from relatively small amounts to people losing hundreds of thousands and maybe putting their whole way of life in jeopardy, in terms of losing their accommodation or having their life savings wiped out.
"But this type of fraud has many layers of complexity, so you're dealing with the emotional fallout and the psychological aspects. People understandably find it hard to trust anybody going forward."
Lisa had this advice for anyone who thinks they may be being scammed: "Anytime somebody tells you to keep the relationship secret, that's a red flag. If you're meeting somebody, it should be a happy time, you want to be able to share that with those people that are close to you, to share the good news.
"Do not give money to people that you haven't met, and even if you have met them once or twice, you cannot form an accurate judgment of somebody. It's just about having respect for yourself and that person having respect for you, so any requests for money, just bat them away.
"With anything else that makes you feel uncomfortable, share it with someone else you can trust, gauge their reaction.
"Do your own investigations... You can use Google, for example, to reverse image search a person's photo to see if that matches up with who they claim to be... if in doubt, just speak out and certainly don't part with any money."
Nationally, 8,863 romance frauds were reported between October 2020 and November 2021, with losses of more than £90 million.
It is widely believed that romance fraud is significantly underreported, so this number is expected to be larger.