Stolen Images
Scammers post profiles, using stolen photographs of attractive women (or men), asking for men (or women) to contact them. Letters are exchanged between the scammer and victim until the scammer feels they have groomed the victim enough to ask for money. This might be for requests for airplane tickets, medical expenses, education expenses etc. There is usually the promise that the fictitious character will one day join the victim in the victim's country. The scam usually ends when the victim realizes they are being scammed and/or stops sending money. Victims can be highly traumatized by this and are often very embarrassed and ashamed when they learn they have become a victim of a scam and that the romance is a farce.
Read more about this topic: Romance Scam
Famous quotes containing the words stolen and/or images:
“If some beggar steals a bridle
he’ll be hung by a man who’s stolen a horse.
There’s no surer justice in the world than that
which makes the rich thief hang the poor one.”
—Peire Cardenal (c. 1180–1272)
“We are all of us imaginative in some form or other, for images are the brood of desire ...”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)