Fresh warning over romance scams in Lincolnshire
A new report suggests £6.8 million has been lost across the UK in the last 12 months
Anyone looking for love in Lincolnshire is being urged to be wary of ruthless scammers.
It's a new report suggest 65% of people think it'd never happen to them - despite almost £7 million being lost in the last 12 months.
Andy Fox is a fraud expert who supports victims across our County, he says very often people are in denial: "For suddenly the police to turn up at their doorstep and say this is a fraud, that person isn't real. Sometimes their actions towards myself or or my colleagues who attend, with the aim to help the person, can be actually quite hostile because they don't want to hear it.
"They say, well, you don't know me. You don't know the relationship I'm in. I I know the person I'm with. I love them. I trust them. We're building a future together. How dare you speak to me like that? Get out of my house. I've had real, you know, real venomous reactions, I guess to me, turning up with the intention of trying to help somebody.
"The losses can be astronomical. Anything from a few £100 to dealing with a victim at the moment who has lost everything she owns plus her house. She actually sold her house because she thought she was giving money to the fraudster on the promise that he was going to buy a bigger and better house for the pair of them."
Andy says it's rarely the victims themselves that report to the police: "Generally it will be family members. It may even be the banks, because of course the person will go in and try to make international bank transfers. They will give some really elaborate story that the bank knows straight away that that this is a scam. So they will call the police."
Advice from Lincolnshire police
Be wary of giving out personal information on a website or chatroom. Scammers will quickly contact you, often showing you glamorous photos of themselves and gaining your trust.
But how do you know the person you’re talking to (or their photo) is genuine? The answer is that you don’t.
A scammer will make conversation more personal to get information out of you, but won’t tell you much about themselves that you can check or verify.
They’ll normally steer you away from chatting on a legitimate dating site that staff could monitor. They want you to talk on email, text and phone, rather than through the dating site or chatroom where you met.
A scammer tells stories to target your emotions and get you to give them money. They may claim they have an ill relative or are stranded in a country they don’t want to be in.
They may not ask you directly for money, hoping instead that you’ll offer it out of the goodness of your heart. You must not.
Never send money abroad to someone you’ve never met. Never send it to anyone you don’t actually know and trust.
Likewise, never agree to keep your online relationship a secret. This is a ploy to get you not to tell your family and friends, who’ll see the scam for exactly what it is.
Equally, don’t accept any offer of money. A scammer may ask you to accept money from them into your own bank account, using a convincing story as to why they can’t use their own account. The circumstances may seem genuine, but you could unwittingly be laundering money, a criminal offence.