We frequently hear about romance scam victims who were bold enough to disclose their situation to authorities and make their experience public. Reporting a scam is an important step to prevent others from becoming victims. However, according to our team of Russian private detectives the worst incidents are frequently left untold.

A few months ago, horrifying news of a triple murder in Spain hit the media. Three elder siblings living together were killed, and the civil guard believes the killing was motivated by a debt of the siblings, which was tied to their involvement in an online love scam.

Friends and neighbors of the siblings told local media that the sisters had been corresponding with someone claiming to be from the United States for several years. The romance scammers had approached the sisters for money, and the sisters not only agreed to transfer it, but they also drained their bank accounts (more than 400,000 euros) to satisfy the demands of the scammer. After exhausting their financial options, they turned to informal lenders and acquaintances, one of which confessed to murdering them because they never paid the debt.

This story highlights several of the catastrophic effects of a romance fraud. Although the murderer and the romance scammer were not the same person, this case demonstrates how these fake relationships test people’s limits and force victims to do things they would never do otherwise.

The untold part of the story is one that private investigators in Moscow frequently discover while working on a background check case or a local investigation. Victims suffer losses that exceed a few hundred or thousand dollars. They lose their life savings, obtain mortgages and loans from informal lenders and criminals, and sometimes end up tangled in the worst situations imaginable. Victims are left impoverished, and it happens that some of them are sentenced to prison for crimes they did not commit, at least not consciously (like being part of a money laundering or human trafficking scheme). The Spanish siblings are an example of victims who have even lost their life over a fake romantic relationship.

Sadly, the most often response from authorities and other people is that victims had this coming on them. Finding the perpetrators is complicated given that they have many resources to avoid being tracked. This is why a dating background check investigation at the right time is critical. The most effective way to not be a victim is to know who you are dealing with from the beginning of the relationship. Regardless of whether you have only met online or have met in person, information from official sources can give you a better picture, from confirming the identity of this person to knowing if they have a criminal past or ties to suspicious activities.

Share this information with your friends who are online dating too! It’s important for everyone to be aware that the worse case scenario of online dating is not heartbreak, it can be so much worse. Contact us to verify the person you are dating is real and safe to be around.

C. Wright

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