To think that women who fall for romance scammers are idiots?

[YourAmplePlumPoster]

Are women who fall for romance scammers idiots?

Well that's it, isn't it.

I can perhaps understand someone getting drawn in if it's plausible and someone local or who they met on holiday. But when I got a fb friend request from Brad Pitt, my partner and I laughed about it.

Not for a second did either of us think the actual real life Brad Pitt was interested in me!

I got a friend request from Prince William.

I just got one on Instagram from Colin Firth

Oh, Mr. Darcy ...

Why are so many of these creeps "in the US army" or "in the oil industry", and why are there never any banking facilities where they are stationed? 😃

I would have had a similar opinion not long ago, but I saw one certain series on Netflix and this group of scammers were using obituaries to find recently widowed women (assuming they'd have some money / house, etc), love bombing them, conning them by paying for and buying gifts / hotels / meals out. These very vulnerable women were totally duped. Some of them went on a year or so before the scammers actually asked for any money / assistance with a "crisis". I felt so bad for them.

• It's fraud. To call them 'scams' minimises both the intent of the criminals and the impact on the victim.

• Many victims of this type of fraud are particularly vulnerable (in the same way that other fraudsters target elderly people). It's both offensive and disingenuous to refer to them as idiots.

• This victim blaming narrative is deeply harmful, both to the victim and to law enforcement because it reduces the chance of it being reported and dealt with.

I work in national fraud, so I do feel qualified to comment. There's a fair amount of ignorance relating to romance fraud, both evidenced on this thread and in real life.

My mum had one of these! She figured it out for herself and confronted him - and he admitted that was exactly what he did. Identified recently widowed women and contacted lots of them.

He was too quick to show a very keen interest in her house, fortunately. She got a fair few boxes of chocolates and (I suspect) some sex out of it, so wasn't too upset though she was a bit pissed off. I hope he never improved his technique!

That’s interesting.

So what’s your opinion on someone who sends £25k to ‘Brad Pitt’ who’s found her on Facebook?

If the victim’s a widow we should be sympathetic about her loss. But what about the decision to send lots of money to a begging, infatuated Hollywood megastar?

I'm 50 now so I seem to be ripe for DMs from mainly Floridian widowed medics.

All very typically good looking men who tell me I'm beautiful and they'd love to chat.

They get blocked immediately.

I would be an idiot to believe it.

I think though, I could have sympathy for someone falling for a real life person but giving money to someone you have never even met is very different.

I understand they are vulnerable too but are very different things.

My assumption would be mental health problems and/ or learning difficulties, since nobody of sound mind is likely to do this.

Yes, they cast their net widely, in the knowledge that while most (like you) will block them, a few will take the bait - because they are likely vulnerable in some way. Including learning disabled. Despicable, isn't it?

This is the most bizarre romance scam I've seen in a long time. The victim was very young but didn't think to Google him until late into the scam and thought he was an aristocrat.

If I was going to marry the love of my life I'd want to know his family, his parents and his friends.

I wonder how someone with mental health problems or learning difficulties has that much money to give away. I certainly don't.

So you’re not just saying that victims are foolish, you’re saying they’re actually diagnosable as mentally ill? That’s not exactly a sympathetic point of view.

Does that also go for people who get defrauded by African princes who have $50,000,000 to spirit out of the country but need a few grand to make arrangements?

My son has mental health problems and has been scammed once with one of those windows scams on his computer. He phoned me during the scam as he was suspicious and I told him to shut his computer down and phone his bank. They'd already taken £800 out of his bank account but the bank paid it all back.

The two most stolen profiles on Instagram are Dr Kerim Bizmaz, a very handsome Turkish doctor and Corey Harmon, a US body builder and former US Marine and I follow both of them so the impersonators stay away 😀

I was a couple weeks ( dating site years ago) in when I realised he was a scammer. Bloke lost his wife - single dad in army. Wanted to be discharged sooner so asked me if I could help him complete some paperwork for this. Don't remember why but I reversed imaged his profile picture and realised he was fake - wouldn't have said I was an idiot, or vulnerable or particularly lonely

I often think this.

Why do you think a young, reasonably attractive man, less than half your age would be genuinely interested in you!

I've seen a few of these love rats on a Netflix series and I personally struggle to u understand how people fall for it.

I don't part with my ££ easily, so I wouldn't fall for this kind of scam.

The notion that all elderly people or divorced women are dim and ripe to be taken is not right. Though this does happen.

Same here. Especially if you've had a period in your life when you've been scrimping and saving and struggled. How could you throw away money so lightly?

I watched that.

I wouldn't be giving my credit card to anyone else. Whilst these scammers are cunning, I could never fall for it.

Sending ££ to someone you've never even me just perplexes me. I watched one thing on TV and the women borrowed money from her church to give to the con artist romance scammer. She was a broken single parent as well. She never met the man in person

She was divorced and vulnerable and incredibly naive.

The amount of old woman being deceived by young men they met in holidays says it all. If the man liked old women, he'd go for one in his own country. I find it ridiculous and yes, these women are foolish to fall for men who could be their son or grandson. As they say...there's no fool, like an old fool.