Trust Building

This next stage in the fraud is an exercise in trust building and creating compliance.

First, they start to put the victim through a powerful and intense emotional manipulation. They will often lay themselves bare in this process (or the lie of it in the story they use) and make the victim feel that they are the ones being questioned. These criminals often send ID documents with or without being asked for them, as a way to prove legitimacy, this in turn can coerce victims into sending theirs.

Back Story

These scammers will often have a sad back story which immediately builds empathy.

Widows and orphans are common stories used in these frauds. Widowed through (car crash, cancer, childbirth, covid) , Divorced, Wife Cheated.

Orphaned or only an elderly relative. Single parent.

Work mostly takes them overseas (also see professions in Step 1).

Gifts

Gift giving is quite common in the romance fraud world. Why would they send gifts to victims? Individual scammers, just starting out, may not have back up resources to use for this part of the manipulation or may have only a small amount to buy a token gift. However, larger groups have more money at their disposal from prior stolen funds and this can go some way to creating that loving caring and thoughtful partner when they send you a gift. Flowers, chocolates, Prosecco, jewellery, teddy bears, breakfast, pizza are just some of the gifts that victims have received. The biggest groups of organised crime will also purchase art work from the victims for example or pay off credit card bills. These victims are often then used to launder money. Of course with this option, they are also getting your address to add to the name, phone number and email for you.

Gift giving in this sense, shouldn’t be confused with the package scam. This refers to larger packages the scammers claim will be sent to you, containing gifts, important documents or other important items. These packages don’t actually exist and you would be asked to pay import taxes to release for delivery.

Fake Video Calls

Scammers who know how, will utilise fake video calls to legitimise the fraud and your belief in them being the person in the pictures. There are 2 ways to do this currently. Method 1, is using a saved video of the person in the photos. Method 2, uses new AI powered face swap technology, also referred to as ‘Deep Fakes’. Watch below how these are achieved:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/164RJ9Xmhx/?mibextid=wwXIfr

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Dp53N96NA/?mibextid=wwXIfr

AI can also be used for cloning voices for voice notes to send in chats, or to manipulate pictures to be more suitable for the story.

Sextortion

Collection of intimate images during romance fraud is fairly common. These can be collected through the early manipulation process or created with apps which are powered with AI.

Please read more about this here on Catch The Catfish

Other pictures

Scammers will always ask for more pictures of you and even of things you are doing including food. They collect albums of pictures for use with other victims because they most often will not have access to these types of pictures where they live but need them for the character they have created. For the victim, it appears that the character is always interested in what they are doing and wants to be part of their life.

Sharing ID Documents

For criminals, this is a great way to build trust. They have scammers called ‘editors’ who create these documents for them. Once faced with the characters documents, the victim can feel compelled to show the same level of trust and send theirs in return to show their own legitimacy. These documents can then be used by the criminals for identity theft, opening online bank accounts and online benefit fraud.

If you have sent any personal ID documents, please inform the relevant departments that they are compromised so that they can be blocked and new ones issued.

Opening social media and/or bank accounts

If identity theft isn’t their primary goal, scammers may still find ways to exploit you, such as persuading you to open social media or bank accounts on their behalf. They constantly need access to new social media profiles, particularly those created in Western countries, as these are less likely to be flagged or removed than accounts originating from high-risk fraud areas. This is why they are so eager to obtain them—whether by manipulating victims into creating accounts or by hacking existing ones.

Never share verification codes or one-time passcodes (OTPs) with anyone. Fraudsters often claim they need a code for their own account, but in reality, they have already gathered your login contact details and triggered a password reset. Be cautious of links from unknown sources that direct you to a login page—these are phishing attempts designed to steal your credentials for hacking purposes.

Bank accounts are also essential for fraudsters to launder stolen funds. They may suggest opening a new account under the guise of “saving for your future” or claim they will deposit money that you’ll later need to transfer for an “emergency.” In many cases, they will ask you to use your existing accounts instead. Sometimes, they may even offer to let you keep a small portion of the money as a “thank you.”

Legally, you are unlikely to face consequences unless there is clear evidence that you were aware they were criminals and knowingly helped them move money. However, in cases of romance fraud, victims are almost never complicit—they are manipulated and coerced into unwittingly participating in financial crime.

Cloned bank accounts

Scammers have technology at their fingertips and one of the tricks used very frequently now, is to create a fake bank platform and give the victim ‘their’ bank account log in details, to make some transfers on their behalf when busy. This is the biggest form of perceived trust (from the criminal) and the victim can feel very awkward or privileged to be asked. These bank accounts will legitimise the identity of the character, the wealth they will have discussed and can also show a history of payments to back up the work they say they do. Transfers can be made, and live notifications can be present. Once completed, the scammer will often tell the victim that there was a suspicious login notification or email. This can have the effect of making the victim feel guilty as ‘they triggered’ the issue. This process gives an opening for the money ask or favour, further into the fraud.