We trolled an online love scammer to see how far Mr Too Good to be True would go
Women in Hong Kong lost HK$95 million through online romance scams last year; our investigator endures threats and insults from a real scammer to see just what they will do to try to get their money
Swedish dentist, PhD, 55, 6’2”, widower, child living with him, a “family man to the core”, seeks a woman, aged 45 to 65, with “honesty and self-confidence, who respects and loves her man” and, of course, “respect is definitely reciprocal”.
You’re a single lady looking for love, so what’s not to like about Dr John – username “HunkJon”. His profile photos and “verified” Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter credentials portray a respectable, clean-cut chap. He’s almost too good to be true. That’s because, in reality, hunky Dr John is a cynical West African romance scammer.
The tall Viking pictured exists somewhere, possibly unaware his image is being used to extort cash from gullible lonely hearts, explains Paul Jackson, a former Hong Kong police officer turned cybercrime investigator.
Despite warnings, English-speaking women in Hong Kong continue to fall prey to online romance scams. In January and February this year, fraudsters netted HK$12 million from 24 female lonely hearts victims, according to the latest figures from the city’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau (CSTCB). This compares with 114 local cases of internet dating fraud in 2016, with losses of HK$95 million for the whole year.
If you get [the bank account holder] into trouble for nothing I definitely come for you … You playing a dangerous game with me
My attempt to “scam the scammer” started with a friend pointing out suspicious guys posting on Lovestruck, a paid-for dating site popular with professionals. Guys posing as widowed engineers or medics with PhDs, children, good photos: they’re the ones, my friend said. Sure enough, Dr John fitted the bill. After brief chats on Lovestruck, he diverted me to WhatsApp – a common ploy, says Senior Police Inspector Dicky Wong Tik-ki of the CSTCB’s cyber security division.
