Criminals tricking Australians out of their savings with online romance scams are giving baby boomers the flick, targeting younger victims, and stealing more money than ever.
Like many Australians looking for love online, Alf's* story started when he swiped right on a dating app.A younger demographic is now the target of online thieves as the popularity of dating apps growsAnnie, an ex-pat from Hong Kong, appeared to be in her late 20s and living in a suburb near Alf's work in Western Australia.It was the start of a scam which almost cost Alf a lot more than just a broken heart.
"As people are at home more in COVID, more turn to online dating as a way of meeting people," she said.Alf*, whose name has been changed at his request to protect his privacy, falls into the group of younger Australians in the 35 to 45-year-old age group who are being targeted.Of those, 23.2 per cent came from an even younger demographic — people aged from 18 to 34.
"One is the anonymity that it offers in transactions, and the other is that the value of cryptocurrencies has bounced back after the past couple of years of not having great returns for those that have bought into it." Screenshot the person's profile picture and put it through a Google search to see if it is a real photo
"What I found out later is the actual brokerages that you have to use to put the money in your account to access trading or the meta trader — that's where the scamming comes in."Professor Lacey said 12 to 18 months ago scammers elicited the first payment from their victims within 40 days, however that had now dropped to 30 days.
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