Shanghai police warn citizens to beware of online romance frauds

Shanghai police are warning people to be aware of Romantic Internet scams in which victims lose a lot of money.

In Putuo District, a man reported to police that he was duped into giving a woman he met online 1.09 million yuan (US$158,000) as soon as the amount was sent his  “girlfriend” cut off contact and vanished. This happened on a dating website named Zhou.

However, the number of cases solved and suspects caught have doubled from the same period last year.

Police have not revealed the number of financial losses of such victims. According to local law enforcement authorities, it accounts for 16 per cent of all losses involving Internet and telecom fraud during the first seven months of this year, more than any other type of scam. 

Police say scams in which perpetrators try to develop online relationships with their victims were still a minority yet the average amount of money lost in each case is quite large.

Internet fraud cases in which money loss occurred rose 4.8 percent till now in this year as per police.

The romance scams are rising as a new type of fraud to exploit the people and there are multiple factors fueling this. Taking into account such incidents online dating sites should be secured with digital identity verification is the one.