So you think you’ve found your next beau online? If you haven’t met in person, think again.
The FBI is warning Pittsburghers not to go looking for love in all the wrong places this Valentine’s Day season.
Fraudulent “relationship scammers” have stolen 23 million dollars from 1,187 victims in Pennsylvania in the last two years, according to Doug Olson, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Cyber Intelligence Branch at the FBI’s Pittsburgh Field Office.
Mr. Olson said these scams, broadly known as catfishing, are increasingly common nationwide.
The most targeted group? Women over 40 who are elderly, disabled or divorced, Mr. Olson said.
The scammers pose as lovers, wooing victims with flirtation and flowers. Then, they ask for money -- thousands of dollars -- for a plane ticket to come visit or for a family member’s medical bills.
In western Pennsylvania and West Virginia alone, 346 victims lost a total of three million dollars in the last two years, according to Mr. Olson.
And those are just the recorded cases. Others may be too embarrassed to come forward.
Catfishing criminals often tell potential victims they are overseas on business, working in the military or on an oil rig, said Mr. Olson. Most commonly, they say they’re in Nigeria, Canada or the United Kingdom.
Mr. Olson said online daters should be aware that any information they put in their profile or say to someone online can be used against them.
Red flags for identifying fraudulent accounts include that scammers often pull users off the dating website and start communicating with them via email, and that when scammers ask for money, they often request a money order or for funds to be sent to a friend -- some “strange” form of payment, said Mr. Olson.
Mostly, though, Mr. Olson advises common sense.
“If it sounds too good to be true,” said Mr. Olson, “it probably is.”
And of course, don’t send money to someone you haven’t met in person.
Although cases like this are difficult to investigate and prosecute, as these criminals may or may not be within United States borders, Mr. Olson said there has been some success.
Sigismond Senyo Segbefia, of Maryland, was the last scammer sentenced in federal court, according to the Pittsburgh Field Office of the FBI.
Segbefia, who was 29 when he was sentenced in 2015, used fake identities to steal over a million dollars.
One of his victims was a 61-year-old widow from the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh, who wired him $220,000. A Colorado lawyer sent him over $500,000. Six other women sent a total of $85,000.
Segbefia set up a profile using a McDonald mailman's name and ID on a popular dating website and pretended to be an Australian selling medical equipment. He said he was having trouble sending his medical devices to England, according to assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Melucci.
In a separate incident, he posed as an Army sergeant deployed in Afghanistan and said he needed money because the United Nations had taken control of his accounts. He told the victim he was returning to the United States with valuable gems and needed help paying the taxes and fees.
If you are the victim of a romance scam, the FBI Pittsburgh Field Office said victims or third parties should notify their financial institutions, and can report the crime through the Internet crime complaints website IC3.gov. IC3 complaints are routed to the FBI.
Abigail Mihaly: amihaly@post-gazette.com
First Published: January 31, 2020, 7:00 p.m.
