Cyber Criminals targeting online dating victims have managed to steal 40 million pounds from victims last year. Action Fraud which is Britain’s Cyber Crime Reporting Center concluded the above said fact and added that majority of victims were from affluent families out of which 53 percent of them were professional women looking for some fun and affection.
The survey conducted by Action Fraud also disclosed that on average victims lost £10,000 as they are often lured into a web of intrigue by online strangers whom they met on popular dating sites.
As per the report compiled by the Cyber Crime Reporting Center of UK, most of the criminals conducting dating scams were from West Africa and Eastern Europe and some from US & Canada.
According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there are 3,889 victims of romance fraud last year and they handed over a record sum of 39 million pounds to fraudsters. In the year 2015, the number of victims remained just 3000 and the financial loss was posted as £21 million.
Action Fraud says that it now receives more than 350 complaints a month and exclusively cited that a University Professor lost 140,000 million pounds in a series of orchestrated cyber scams in this year.
Although police help in such scams is limited, they do try to trace out the source of the scam. But due to some judicial restrictions and certain stipulations they cannot act against these fraudsters.
Consequently, Britain government will soon start a digital campaign which will help in educating its populace against such dating scams.
The government has also urged the dating site visitors not to disclose any kind of personal or private information like bank account details on the dating web portals.
So, are all you fun loving men & women listening…?
