Daejon Love case highlights online romance scams: Research reveals scammers’ tactics – and how to defend against them
Dating apps have given an ancient profession, confidence scamming, a high-tech boost.
The Daejon Love case underscores the growing issue of online romance scams. Prosecutors claim Love defrauded over 20 women out of about $1.3 million using fictitious investment opportunities. Love would pose as a famous football player or wealthy real estate mogul, gain women's trust, and then ask for money. This case highlights how dating scams often start with emotional connections rather than immediate money requests.
The rise of dating apps post-pandemic has led to an increase in online romance scams in the U.S. According to the Federal Trade Commission, nearly 70,000 Americans were victims of these scams in 2022, losing over $1.3 billion. Scammers create deceptive profiles and use urgent scenarios to carry out the scam.
Researchers from Georgia State University, University of Alabama, and University of South Florida studied how scammers operate. They identified five stages: attracting victims with appealing profiles, grooming victims to build intimacy, creating crises to extract money, occasionally using blackmail, and revealing the scam. Scammers carefully plan their actions to ensure profitable outcomes, often using social engineering techniques and crisis stories to prompt urgent requests.
Scammers also adapt their tactics based on victims' responses, using social norms, guilt, and supposed emergencies to manipulate victims. For instance, in China, a scam called "Sha Zhu Pan" involves multiple groups of scammers using romantic tactics to persuade victims to invest in fake apps or gambling websites, never to receive their money back. The scammers have various roles, from interacting with victims to laundering money.
To defend against online romance scams, researchers suggest dating apps implement warning messages that use linguistics algorithms to identify keywords like "money," "MoneyGram," and "bank" in conversations. Apps could also use tools to detect counterfeit profile pictures. These measures could help prevent scammers from establishing fake profiles and initiating conversations in the first place.
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