Scammers are using love to get their hands on cold hard cash by targeting elderly or retired women.
Acting Director Economic Crime Reshmi Dass revealed during the National Scam Awareness Week event held at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva that there are close to 10 cases before the courts as she shared how a woman lost around $500,000 because of fraudulent romance scheme.
She said perpetrators sweet talked the women — who were between 60 and 70 years — into sending nude pictures of themselves and then threatened to expose them on social media.
“We have been receiving complaints and the victims are the retired ladies who shared their nude pictures with the person they were communicating with,” Ms Dass said.
“So, to get the money out of these victims, out of these ladies, they tried to tell them that if she’s not going to give the money to him (the perpetrator), he’s going to expose her on social media to just defame her character.”
She said similar cases regarding such romance scams before the court.
“He’s a very young guy who was doing all this.
“He’s pretending to be overseas and he was using a WhatsApp number, and he was trying to get in touch with the ladies who were already retired or were maybe in the age of 60s or 70s.
“They get in contact and have sweet talks.
“That lady, the one I’m mentioning, she has given $500,000 to this perpetrator.
“When she came to know that he’s just a local, and he was doing this to a lot of ladies, she reported.”
Ms Dass advised women not to share their personal details and photos with strangers on social media.
“So, please be careful when sharing your personal information to anybody on social media.
“If you get a text from any person, please do not give your personal details, or share any of your photos which can lead up to this kind of fraud, which this person has been doing.
“We have about eight or nine cases against this man, which is pending in court.”
