Told the woman he loved never existed, the man was stunned. He's fallen for a long-term internet scam.
The 48-year-old man called Naperville police at 6:57 p.m. Wednesday to ask for help in rescuing the woman, whom he believed had been kidnapped in London, according to a police report.
He told police he started the relationship online 2 1/2 years ago. During that time, the man wired about $200,000 total to several different bank accounts in Nigeria, Malaysia, England and the United States...
This could be taken as a variant of the "Kids, don't trust anyone online" story, with a Nigerian scam twist. But is it fearsome? This post and following comments suggest not, that the Illinois fellow's scamming merits derision instead of dread.
But pair it with yesterday's Facebook story, about people desperately seeking emotional connections through the internet, and it could seem more sinister.
(via Slashdot)
Your post title reminded me of Kurt Busiek's classic Astro City #1/2, "The Nearness of You." Perhaps there's a retcon in your story, too?
Posted by: Derek | March 02, 2011 at 14:27
Somehow I think I missed that. Yikes!
Posted by: Bryan Alexander | March 03, 2011 at 14:03
Dating scams are much more common than people believe. In 2007/08, the FBI declared dating scams to be one of the top Internet crimes.
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/april/ic3rep_040308
More recently, romance scams involving supposed US soldiers in Afghanistan have become endemic. Con men either create fake profiles on social networking or dating sites, or they hack the existing accounts of serving soldiers. In either case, shortly after a contact is made, the requests for money begin, slowing growing over time, as the con men are sure they have their victim "hooked".
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7705962
Posted by: Randy McCall | March 07, 2011 at 18:10