Sweet-Talking Ernest Dickens and the Spanish Prisoner

Sweetheart scams and the booming cyber-fraud industry are fueled by the human drive to trust people.

Sweetheart scams and the booming cyber-fraud industry are fueled by the human drive to trust people. With cyber-fraud predicted to be the big growth area for criminal activity in the coming decade, it's a good idea to be wary of who you trust online.

Imagine finding yourself fit, active but very much alone in your sixties or seventies. Perhaps your partner has died, or there has been a divorce or separation. You can look forward to another twenty years or more of active life and, as time passes, loneliness sets in. You want someone special in your life again. But how do you even go about finding that someone?

Many people in this situation end up looking online to seek a prospective mate. This is where the trouble can start, according to Detective Inspector Iain Chapman National Manager - Assets Recovery Units Financial Crime Group.

“[There are] three types of victims: the first kind can lose a little bit of money [and] they’re too embarrassed to come forward; the second kind [have] lost quite a bit of money and it’s life changing; the third type don’t even realise that they are a victim…"

Chapman says the typical victim of a romance fraud is a widow or single woman in her sixties or seventies who is looking to meet a new partner.

They're likely to live alone and tend to be new to computer technology which means they're not aware of safe practices online.

Online relationships can blossom quickly and deliver a sense of intimacy and trust alongside a powerful feeling of attachment. For the lonely hearts these instant feelings of trust and intimacy feed the notion that a genuinely loving relationship is forming. It is these empathetic feelings that make people vulnerable and give the scammer opportunities to exploit them.

"Con artists and scammers wouldn't be able to ply their trade if there wasn't a certain base-level of trust," says Professor Marc Wilson from the school of psychology at Victoria University.

Wilson says a fraudster's modus operandi will vary, but confidence tricksters all operate by gaining our trust and confidence. This is crucial to their achieving their goals. They also know that all humans seem to be hardwired to believe that what people tell them is probably the truth. This is especially true of those who really want to believe in the person delivering the message.

"Some of the cyber fraudsters are willing to play the long game, seeing it as an investment with big returns," Detective Inspector Iain Chapman says…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details