Nigerian Sweetheart Scams

Nigerian scams have become notorious throughout western countries. In the U.S. are known as “419” or “advance-fee” frauds. The phenomenon has taken recently a very “sweet” turn. Singles are seduced into a game of trust and affection through online chat rooms. The scam is achieved through postal money orders, an irreversible payment way. Victims cash off money orders and wire the money to Nigeria. But there is no money return from the banks to consumers who have wired funds overseas, hoping to cement a love bond.

This new type of approach is known for its seductive flavour as "sweetheart scams". Scammers show incredible patience to trick their victims but sometimes aren’t after cash. They ask their “sweethearts” to "re-ship" items to locations in Nigeria purchased with stolen credit cards, simply because many U.S. retailers are dubious shipping to Nigeria so the criminals need a middleman.

Sweetheart scams appear to be on the rise as pointed out by Merchant Risk Council and Matchdoctor.com. Some scammers target Christian singles chat rooms where people feel safer. In certain occasions the scams took as long as a year, hunting for people's weaknesses and common interests and then go in for the kill. They have the time. They have the patience.

But the public becomes more and more savvy, even though the first thing most people say is “I can't believe I was so stupid”. RomanceScams is a yahoo group founded by victims maintaining a photo database of alleged scammers, links to dangerous online dating channels, and email samples in an effort to advertise and control this phenomenon. Rhoda Cook operates straightshooter.net with a substantial database of sweetheart con artists, and many different romance scams.