[V]ictims of romance fraud come from all sectors of society – any gender, any sexuality, any race, any age and any social class. The fraudsters will target anyone. Yes, even you.
They will find out what they can about you and use it against you. You lost someone you love? So did they. You wish you had children? They have a child who would love you. You are religious? He is a churchgoer. You get the picture. Coercive control is at the very centre of this, and whatever story the fraudster concocts, including the ones pretending to be celebrities, it will end with them urgently needing money.
Your overconfidence is one of the ways that fraudsters are able to reach you. Thinking you’re above such things makes you less vigilant, and as you’re forging ahead in your daily cleverness you have forgotten everything that you are too clever to think about. An additional downside is that if you are then defrauded you will be less likely to report it as you will be suffering from unimaginable shame.
So what can be done? Well, we need changes from the top for a start. At the moment, fraud (not just romance fraud) accounts for 40% of all crime in the UK, but only 1% of police resources are dedicated to it.
Romance fraud is underreported, underinvestigated and hugely misunderstood. So I would urge everyone: next time you hear a story of someone who has given money to a person they believed they were in a relationship with, rather than gear up to having a good old scoff, maybe consider that there was more to it than meets the eye.