Romance scams are a specific form of criminal fraud. Criminal fraud is a criminal act that involves a scheme that is intended to cheat or deceive another person or entity, in order to obtain a financial or similar type of gain.
In a criminal fraud scheme, the victim relies on a false fact to their legal detriment. The victim of fraud will typically be an organization, person, or company. A romance scam is a form of criminal fraud that is typically carried out against an individual person for the purposes of financial gain.
Criminal fraud is typically considered to be a white collar crime, or a non-violent crime that is committed for the purposes of financial gain. In short, a romance scam is a confidence trick where a person makes false claims to a victim in order to establish a relationship and trust for the purposes of obtaining money from the victim. Once the victim feels comfortable with the scammer, the perpetrator of the scam uses that goodwill and trust to obtain money and/or property from their victim.
In the case of a romance scam, the crime is considered to be confidence fraud by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”). Romance scams are considered confidence fraud because in a romance scam, the scammer’s intent is to quickly establish a relationship and gain the trust of the victim, in order to take advantage of the person and ask them for money. In fact, romance scams resulted in the highest amount of financial losses to victims when compared to other online fraudulent schemes.
What Is the Goal of Romance Fraud?
Once again, the goal that a romance scammer typically has in mind is financial gain. A romance scammer carrying out romance fraud usually does the criminal fraudulent scheme for their personal financial benefit.
Once again, the romance scammer makes false statements to gain the victim’s trust in order to obtain access to the victim’s:
- Money, especially by means of online money transfers that may not be returned;
- Passport or other personal information, such as a person’s social security number;
- An individual’s bank account or other accounts that have access to the individuals funds, such as investments accounts or cryptocurrency accounts;
- Credit cards or other charge card information to then commit credit card fraud and theft; and/or
- Email accounts in order to access the victim’s accounts that are tied to the email, change the passwords, and access the victim’s online accounts that may be used to transfer money to the scammer.
Do Romance Scams Happen Via the Internet?
Yes, as mentioned above the FBI determined that romance scams resulted in the highest amount of financial losses for victims of criminal fraud that occurred via the internet. One of the most common romance scammer tactics is to utilize online channels to establish a trust relationship in order to take financial advantage of a victim.
In fact, the Internet is the most popular tool for romance scammers who wish to commit romance fraud because it is easier to meet victims and build a false sense of a romantic relationship.
Next, the romance scammer will attempt to take advantage of the victim with a promise to meet in person, but asking for financial assistance to meet the victim. Then, before the victim realizes that the relationship is false, they will have lost money or have provided sensitive information to the romance scammer to their financial detriment.
What Is Catfishing?
One of the most common ways that romance scammers use the Internet to their advantage is through “catfishing,” where they pretend to be another person in order to hide their true identity to prevent the victim from being able to ever recover their funds or information from the scammer.
Catfishing occurs when an individual creates a profile using either a borrowed, purchased, or stolen identity and photographs of an attractive person. Then, the romance scammer creates or adopts the persona of the attractive person and utilizes the fake profile in order to get people that would be attracted to such a person to contact them.
From there, the scammer and victim would exchange communications such as emails, posts, direct messages, or letters to each other establishing a fake romantic connection. Once the scammer feels that they have gained the victim’s confidence, they will then typically ask for money or other information that may be used to access the victim’s funds.
Is Fraud in the Inducement the Same as Romance Fraud?
In short, no fraud in the inducement is not the same as romance fraud. Fraud in the inducement is a criminal fraudulent act, but fraud in the inducement involves a certain type of contract fraud where one party uses trickery or deceit to obtain an advantage.
In other words, fraud in the inducement typically involves a contract being entered into between the parties in order for the party to induce the victim to get the victim to perform certain acts. For example, a green card marriage may be considered to be fraud in the inducement.
On the other hand, romance scams are often limited to inducing the victim to transfer money or property to the romance scammer. Then the scammer will typically continue the romance scam until the victim realizes that they are being defrauded. At that point the scammer will then erase all evidence of their communications, including the fake profile, if any, that was created to communicate with the victim.
What Are the Remedies for Romance Scams?
As mentioned above, the federal government is the entity that most often initiates criminal charges against romance scammers. Conducting an online romance scam can lead to serious criminal charges in federal court, including severe criminal fines, imprisonment between 20 and 30 years, or a combination of both.
However, it is important to note that the laws of the United States may not be able to reach individuals that are romance scammers present in certain foreign countries. The United States government is limited on their options for extradition (i.e. having the defendants sent to the United States for criminal punishment), but the romance scammers may be arrested if they ever come into the United States.
In addition to criminal penalties, a romance scammer may also be held civilly liable for defrauding the victim of the scam. Romance scam lawyers are lawyers that specialize in locating and holding a romance scammer financially liable for defrauding the victim of the scam. Once located, the victim is typically criminally charged and simultaneously civilly sued for the damages suffered by the victim of the crime.
Typically a romance lawyer will first let the victim be criminally punished for the romance scam crime, and then use that conviction as evidence in a civil lawsuit to establish the elements necessary to prove civil fraud has occurred. Then the lawyer will seek to collect the funds for their client by levying the property of the romance scammer. Collecting a judgment against a romance scammer is often a difficult matter, and as such the assistance of an attorney is often necessary.
Do I Need a Lawyer If I Am Accused of Romance Fraud?
If you are involved in a romance scam fraud, especially if you have suffered a financial loss, it is important to immediately contact an experienced fraud lawyer.
An experienced fraud lawyer will be able to assist you in locating the scammer, and if possible initiating a civil lawsuit against them in order to recover the funds lost to the scheme. Additionally, an attorney may also represent you in court, as necessary.
