DI Dave Hanson investigates romance scams for the National Crime Agency. ‘It’s a pretty unpleasant crime’, he told NewsBiscuit. ‘Typically a victim will fall for an AI-generated image and a hard luck story and soon they’re sending thousands of pounds abroad to help the “love of their life” relocate to the UK – except the person doesn’t exist.
‘It’s humiliating for the victim and we never catch anybody because they’re abroad and they’ve got computers. You can’t expect us to compete with that. So we’ve shifted emphasis towards making victims feel better. Our analysis shows that most scams cost between £7k and £12k, whereas an average wedding these days is £25k and that’s before you weigh up birthdays, Christmas, anniversaries etc. If anything, we should be thanking the scammers. So I’ve nominated the most prolific romance scam group for a King’s Award for Industry. It’ll be interesting to see if they turn up to collect the medal.’
Image: Josch13 - Pixabay
