Woman taken in by Facebook 'Cupid'
Aw Cheng Wei The Straits Times Saturday, Nov 29, 2014
She thought she had found love but ended up losing more than $22,000 in a month.
Ms Suzannie (not her real name), who has a disability, received a friend request on Facebook in April from a "Troy Williams". He claimed to be a soldier from the United States recuperating in India after being injured in Syria.
"At first I didn't want to accept his friend request, but he talked to me and wrote me poems everyday," she said. He also called her his wife.
The 44-year-old photocopier operator thought she had found her "true love". Instead, he started asking her for money and she lost her savings of $3,000. She also borrowed $19,000 from friends, who still do not know what she used the money for.
Police statistics show there were 82 cases of "love scams" involving about $3.1 million between January and June. In the same period last year, there were 22 such cases, involving $1.7 million.
Such Internet love scams first surfaced in 2008 and involved women victims in their 40s to 60s. In most cases, cheats start by befriending their victims on social media before charming their way into their lives.
These conmen send a friend request and lay the trap by talking to their victims every day, with the scammer playing the ever-attentive partner or sweet-talking their victims into falling in love with them.
Then, they will play the pity card by claiming to be in trouble with the law or to have problems with their health.
