Information on romance scams and scammers.
#197771 by mariko Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:00 am
The romance scam victim I have helped recently reported her case to the local police. Her
local Lawyer gave up and she only have police to care about the case.
The police says he will report to the police HQ in her country, then will be reported to UK. The evidences were reported to UK police too.

The local police advised her to contact the scammer as she did before as usual, to make sure the scammer is not aware of his victim became aware of being scammed. Is this good way? I think mosy of Anti-scam sites I know are saying disconnect all contacts to the scammer. If not, then recovery scams and other disasterous things coming up. How should I advise her?? Maybe police intention is keep scammer hooked to her, make sure the scammer will not run away. But concern is about the victim herself. If she need to contact him further more, she may be requested to pay more, or maybe the scam gang will plan to make her mule?? Recovery scam comes out?? Also will affect to her mental matters.
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#197776 by AlanJones Thu Apr 17, 2014 10:54 am
She definitely should not be remaining in contact with the scammer - the longer she remains in touch with the scammer, the more likely it is that there will be more fees etc. requested.

She has nothing to gain by staying in touch with the scammer as the crime has already been committed - I wonder if the same policeman would advise the victim of domestic violence to remain with the person assaulting them - I expect not.

It is virtually certain that she won't be getting her money back or that any arrests will be made. I don't know the full background obviously, but it is likely that the person in the UK is not the scammer, but just a mule who received the money and sent it on, and is probably a scam victim themselves.

Please do not tell scammers that they are listed here - it will take them seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be listed for any future victims to find.
#197780 by jolly_roger Thu Apr 17, 2014 11:20 am
Not sure what has happened in this case but staying in contact with the scam artist is pointless! Everything the scammer has said is basically a lie. The lady is essentially in communication with someone who's not real. The police are not really experienced in scams and are probably out of their depth.
Yes is far better to stop contact with the scammer because no good will come from it.
May I suggest the lady join a local introduction agency, maybe a local dance group, how about a local singles dinner club or something similar. At least it would enable her to meet real people.
I would strongly advise to STOP all this silly so called internet dating because it is simply fraught with danger.
#197812 by HillBilly Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:23 pm
mariko wrote:The romance scam victim I have helped recently reported her case to the local police. Her
local Lawyer gave up and she only have police to care about the case.
The police says he will report to the police HQ in her country, then will be reported to UK. The evidences were reported to UK police too.

The local police advised her to contact the scammer as she did before as usual, to make sure the scammer is not aware of his victim became aware of being scammed. Is this good way? I think mosy of Anti-scam sites I know are saying disconnect all contacts to the scammer. If not, then recovery scams and other disasterous things coming up. How should I advise her?? Maybe police intention is keep scammer hooked to her, make sure the scammer will not run away. But concern is about the victim herself. If she need to contact him further more, she may be requested to pay more, or maybe the scam gang will plan to make her mule?? Recovery scam comes out?? Also will affect to her mental matters.


May I ask the country and locality of these police that are asking her to maintain contact? My first thought says the police are corrupt ( or just stupid). My second thought is that maybe the amount of money is sufficient enough that it is a felony theft, so they want the victim to work them setting up a sting operation. But they would have told her that more than likely.

Then the last thought I have is that this victim you are talking to is just plain lying to you in order to maintain contact with this scammer she thinks she loves.

Aside from the 3 scenarios listed above, I can't imagine any law enforcement agency wanting a victim to maintain contact with the criminal that committed a crime against them.

Even police that are not very experienced in internet scams can still figure out that a victim of a crime is not to maintain contact with their criminal. They don't tell abused spouses to stay with your abuser, and this is no different.

#197822 by mariko Thu Apr 17, 2014 8:20 pm
Thanks all. I agree with you all. I sent email to her not recommend to keep in touch with him, and what danger awaits.

Country is in Japan. Police not too corrupted, although several incidents by policemen happens every year. Crime rate is low. I believe for traditional crimes, I proudly say they are good at it so that maintaining lower crime rated in the country.

But when it comes to global crime, they are almost ignorant I guess, especially local police not the cyber crimes dept. @ police HQ in Tokyo.

I think I should also suggest her to contact police HQ cyber crime dept. directly even if local police not feeling good with jumping into another dept.
www.npa.go.jp/cyber/english/index.html
#198042 by coinpuppy Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:26 am
My guess is it is one of two things, either she is lying to you to remain attached to her scammer, OR the police genuinely do not understand how this whole thing works...I'm in a decent sized city in the US and I work with the police here (giving anti-scam talks to seniors etc) and I was pretty surprised how little they understood.

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