Scam bugs will continue to reinvent ways to get your money, appealing to humanitarian emotions not limited to greed or the prospect of making quick money, specially in precarious times like these, but now more alarming than ever, the same scammers have invaded the personal domain of lonely hearts club, using LOVE power to move money!
The poor victims are trapped into a month-long courtship, emails and telephone conversations, exchange of photos (which becomes the next source of scam, those photos you sent will be used for their next M.O. under a different name and story), creating an expectation of finally meeting your lover, and then, there's a problem...lover needs money ranging from a few dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, as the story turns tragic or simply that, lover just wanted to get to the airport supposedly to meet the victim who, at that point, is love-struck.The stories of victims on-line have varied settings, but there is one common denominator behind the creative scenarios: the scam-lover is, or will be leaving the country for some business-related reason. That's how the story progresses, from winning contracts bids, to later needing additional funding to complete the project, which may include shipping, licensing or duties. Some scammers appeal to "pity" by citing possible arrest or detention.
The big problem is, how do you conduct due diligence early on? I embarked on a small project to engage these scammers into communicating with me, originally intended as an investigative journalism. In fairness to all the correspondents, I used the screen name "editor" to forewarn them that I will possibly write about my experience. I logged into two famous dating sites, and withdrew my membership after I gathered the information I needed. I must admit that it was truly entertaining, There were good and bad sides to it. It is indeed possible to find real people with real jobs and are genuinely looking for a soulmate. On the other hand, there are more scammers than real people trying to hook you into a conversation, and hopefully, get you to transfer money to them.
The red flags are all over the place, if you care to look. STEP ONE: you must obtain a verifiable contact number and business address, at the very least. It is understandable not to get the residence address, but if you get the residence phone number, then you are ahead of the game! Check the contact number and location where that number is registered. If it doesn't match with the claimed residence, don't buy it. It is easy enough to verify phone numbers over the internet. If it can't be verified, or if the area code location is out of your state, or out of the country, beware. Try to keep your connection with local people. More concerning is in cases where the person refuses to give a contact number. So, what do you do?
STEP TWO: if you can't get a contact number or address because the person wants to keep it private until such further time that both of you are acquainted, then at least, ask casually which county he or she lives, ask descriptive places of interest in the area so you can zoom into the exact zip code where he or she claims to live within the United States. Or, you can simply ask pointblank what zip code he or she lives in. Search all possible residential zip codes this person used based on the story given to you. At this point, you should know the full name of this person. NOW, you're ready to conduct a REAL SEARCH.
STEP THREE: RESIDENTIAL/BUSINESS SEARCH- Marketing executives use paid online searches to verify your address, number and household income. This is based on a number of sources, and are usually updated. There are free sites available, too. For example, Salesgenie.com is availble on a free trial but you must subscribe after that, so if you are in this game for the long haul, you may want to consider keeping access. It is simple to use, type in the full name, or just the family name and the targeted residential zip code, and voila ..you will get a list of all the households with that surname within that location. If you want to see a nationwide search of anybody, including your own relatives, type in your family name, and it will generate every single household in America having that surname, with information on telephone (which may be on a do-not-call list) and estimated household income and names of household members--there you go. Is your target here? To further enhance your search, you can try a reverse look up at 411.com (free) or phonebook directories online.
STEP THREE: PROPERTY/MARRIAGE/DIVORCE RECORD--Assuming you verified your target, certainly you want to know if this person is married or not. Most likely, you also want to know if the story of this person matches up by checking his or her property ownership. Most big cities have a way of conducting property searches. Try the taxation and finance departments. In New York's 5 boroughs, with a click of the mouse, I can pop in the copies of property owner certificates, even if I do not have the actual address to begin with, and this property registration shows if the person is "married to" xxx. It may be disheartening to discover that, but at least, you know what you're dealing with. So, the divorce stories deserve a little more investigation.If your target does not live in areas where you can get property information, try a free online search: ZABASEARCH.com can give you free listing of MARRIAGE/DIVORCE/DEATH with a few clicks of the mouse! The estimated age of your target will also pop up, problem with these scammers and con artists, they use common names so you may want to check within a 5-year range. That's why, the Salesgenie is, by far, a fool-proof way to harvest the registered names of every household as reported by the landlords and as we report them in the annual statistics.
STEP FOUR: COURT CASES- Don't you want to know if this person has a pending divorce case, if that is the story given to you? Or, perhaps, this person may have other problems with the law. In New York, it is really easy to verify that. Try E-law.com, it's free unless you want to order the court documents that you find. Other legal sites are also available. With these initial search engines, following my 4-STEP due diligence, you cannot go wrong. Of course, if you want further investigation, that may entail professional help. We can go on and on, search social media sites (lococitato.com) and do a reverse email address search, if none of these steps generate verifiable conclusion that your 'lover" is really that name and photo you fell in love with, wake up.
For now, I wish you every success in your search for a soulmate online ...don't despair, there are good souls out there, the best way for me, is a face-to-face social or business networking. Love scammers are not necessarily criminals in the judicial sense of the word. ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE, he may be a fed agent or a con artist, bottomline is, you must conduct your own due diligence. And one last thing, I welcome you to post or share photos of the alleged scammers, for the purpose of alerting that person represented by that photo (who is also a victim) but please do not label that photo as your scammer, because most of these photos are stolen from social media sites, or obtained through dating sites, just like the photos that you probably shared with your con artist. So, it makes sense not to send any photo at all until you finally meet and are comfortable with your due diligence, and certainly, never send compromising photos. I read one victim admitted that she sent a naked photo of herself! That may well wind up in the archives of prostitution websites where exotic nude photos are used to perpetuate similar scams.
Let me know if you have a story to tell, or if this article helped you in anyway. Call me your AML SPECIALIST.
