Our growing reliance on social media, dating websites, online banking and other methods which allow us to meet and connect to people anywhere on the planet, also assists scammers in targeting people that assume they are safe. They believe that something bad will never happen to them because they simply imagine that these things happen to other people. In 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam, and reported losses reached approximately $1.3 billion. Victims, on the average, had lost thousands of dollars by the time they realized what had occurred. Experienced scammers had been able to zero in on information shared on social media, blogs and public records, playing on the heartstrings of unsuspecting victims who were convinced they had found their perfect match.
No matter the fraud, these stories detail the method of deception, the manner in which the victim was groomed or lured; and how the scammer finally struck, playing on the credulity of their victim and coldly taking advantage of people’s blindspots for their own personal gain.
Each episode in the series pieces together the stages of the scam; beginning with a person’s trust being earned, an arranged commitment with a ‘confidence’ person or organization, someone ultimately betrayed and innocence lost. The unveiling of the con-artists or scammer will reveal the portrait of an experienced predator, with sociopathic and narcissistic tendencies. A determined victim supported by a compassionate detective; and in all cases a resolution and lesson.
The twist in these tales emphasizes the fundamental change which criminal activity has undergone since the advent of accessible online technology and detectives who understand the evolving nature of scam crime.