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FBI Warns of an Increase in Online Romance Scams

posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 31 2020, @08:39PM   
from the put-you-money-where-your-heart-is dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

FBI warns of an increase in online romance scams:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation warns of online romance scams (also known as confidence fraud), an ongoing criminal activity that continues to cause large financial losses along with emotional effects with unpredictable consequences.

[...] "According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which provides the public with a means of reporting Internet-facilitated crimes, romance scams result in greater financial losses to victims when compared to other online crimes." reads the alert published by the FBI. "In 2019, almost 20,000 complaints categorized as romance scams were reported to IC3 (about 1,000 more than the previous year), and the losses associated with those complaints exceeded $475 million."

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Original Submission

• Kind of a fine distinction (Score: 4, Touché) by krishnoid on Monday August 31 2020, @10:00PM

  by krishnoid (1156) on Monday August 31 2020, @10:00PM (#1044721)

  an ongoing criminal activity that continues to cause large financial losses along with emotional effects with unpredictable consequences.

  In other words, "romance".
  ...
  Wait, it's criminal because it's not taxed and/or doesn't lead to taxable events. Took me a few minutes for the gears to turn on that one.

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+2
  Underrated=1, Touché=1, Total=2
  Extra 'Touché' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		4