Dating fraud victims conned out of £33m in 2014/15 (msn.com/Press Asc.).
“Police disclosed that 3,543 people [in the UK] reported they had been targeted by romance scams in 2014/15, with a total financial loss of £33,650,491. Commander Chris Greany, the police national co-ordinator for economic crime, described the losses as ‘colossal’ and warned that this type of criminal activity is on the rise. He also appealed to those who feel too embarrassed to report their experiences to police to come forward.”
Which could be embarrassing itself in that it used to be scams with porn that netizens were once “too embarrassed to report”.
“Action Fraud and City of London Police have launched a 13-day campaign to identify common myths around fraud and cyber crime. They said one example was the belief that users of dating websites are vetted before they are allowed to have a membership, when this is ‘very rarely’ the case.”
Indeed, and seemingly about as useful as Google’s now semi-repealed “I’m Davy Jones” RealName Plus policy and those that do ask for Twitteresque pictorial verification to tick the box next to the picture often seemingly need one gender at least to be topless while holding up the card with the chosen wrote word, just to be sure.
“Sums stolen in scams range from small to ‘huge’ amounts, he said, and urged those looking for love not to send money to people they meet through dating sites. … Mr Greany said of romance fraud: ‘It is a reprehensible criminal act which preys on one of the oldest human emotions, which is love.’”
Which, for those not wearing the rose-tinted wine goggles that persuaded them to seek true-love on the internet in the first place, is an ambiguous word and seriously debatable concept—or not, as some may have it fumbling to put those goggles back on. I hear the world’s oldest profession was not akin to lifelong companion until after….
Seriously though, for many today being online means dating:
Tinder, the online dating app everyone’s STILL talking about (marieclaire.co.uk).
Indeed, even pooches are trying their love-luck online, well, sorta…
Tinder, popular dating app, goes to the dogs (cbc.ca, Aug. 2014).Some have suggested that this has made dating akin to shopping for any particular bargains like on Amazon rather than actually seeking anyone they have any particular compatability or indeed even shared interests or outlook with and of course gives potential for scamming akin to not reading the small print and finding you just subscribed to Prime. Although, to be truthful, that’s not a million miles away from dating offline too.
Of course, some are aware of this and thus avoid dating sites online, where, presumably at least, others there are at least looking for similar, preferring to shop around on social media or video chat, but that of course is usually simply a less expensive way of attempting to solicit a “romance encounter”. And indeed, for those that have seemingly found “love” online or not, some, of both sexes, continue to look pseudo-anonymously online for more.
What Is Love? (audio, BBC Radio 4, Jul. 2015).
“Melvyn is joined by four guests with different backgrounds to discuss a really big question: What is Love? Helping him answer it are theologian Giles Fraser, writer Lisa Appignanesi, classicist Edith Hall and psychotherapist Mark Vernon. For the rest of the week Giles, Lisa, Edith and Mark will take us further into the history of ideas about love with programmes of their own. Between them they will examine Freud’s ideas on erotic love, Jesus and altruism, the first guidance on how to be a loving parent, by Rousseau and Aristophanes’ speech which explains how love was born.”
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