The anatomy of a romance-scam ring
14 February 2019 – A Nigeria-based romance-scam outfit, dubbed Scarlet Widow has been bilking lonelyhearts of their savings since 2015. That comes from Crane Hassold, senior director of threat research at Agari, the email security firm that profiled “Scarlet Widow“. In the abstract, people often dismiss email scams as a punchline they are somehow above. In truth, they are a billion-dollar crime paradigm preying on the gullible and savvy alike. And romance scams have particularly tragic dimensions.
One victim of Scarlet Widow – a religious Texas man who believed he was corresponding with an aspiring model training in Paris named Laura Cahill – was swindled out of at least $50,000; $10,000 of which it appears he obtained by stealing from his stepfather. Said Hassold:
Based on what we see, his friends and family brought up concerns. In each case, he pushed it aside and thought he and Laura were meant for each other. It really shows the psychological damage these scams cause.
Even with those warnings, when that victim lost contact with Laura, he became increasingly desperate, emailing:
I JUST WANT TO TALK TO MY BABY. I CAN WAIT FOR YOU BUT I NEED MY BOO.
Agari uses unique methods to gain access to groups and investigate email scams and scammers – ones I’ve been asked not to discuss to maintain their effectiveness. That allows the company to create unique profiles of email scam groups like Scarlet Widow. The firm identified several of the fraudsters involved and says it will announce their identities later this month.
The moniker “Nigerian scam” is more than a nickname. Agari’s research found the Scarlet Widow group, like 90% of email scams, actually does originate in Nigeria. The FTC issued a warning yesterday about romance scams in general. But while that report warned that the elderly are particularly vulnerable to these scams, Scarlet Widow also looked elsewhere.
The group initiated relationships through a variety of personals sites, including the largest services, but also via specialty sites, like ones for people with disabilities, for farmers and for divorced women. Scarlet Widow often targets religious people. Hassold suggests that might be because “these are people who put faith in things they have not seen, being asked to put faith in a person they will never see in person. It gives you a glimpse into what other groups scammers think are vulnerable”. As Agari re-created Scarlet Widow’s past scams, it was also able to identify how the group evolved over time.
The group’s other fake personas included Sterling Michael, a 43-year old captain serving in Afghanistan, and Britney Parkwell, a fabric saleswoman living in San Jose. Scarlet Widow improved its character work over time: “more backstopping, more detail and more realism”. The group, like many of its peers, has dabbled in other forms of email scams as well, but dating is the one that stuck.
Last year, people in search of true love were scammed out of $143 million — which means love is the new, most lucrative target for consumer fraud, according to FTC data. For perspective: just three years before, there were fewer than 9,000 romance scam reports with a total loss of $33 million. But as online dating has become common place and socially acceptable, the number of reports of romance scams more than doubled to 21,000 reports in 2018.
Also from the FTC report:
– Older people who are now beginning to date online are the most susceptible to scammers who often create fake profiles on dating apps, sites or social media platforms.
– 40–69 year olds were twice as likely to fall prey to these scams than people in their 20s, according to the FTC.
– The median loss for people over 70 years old was $10,000 in 2018.