Queensland police have said scammers are using religious lures to defraud romance-seeking Christians online."They go into Christian chat rooms and a lot of the time when they ask for money, there's a Christian element to the [scammer's] story," Queensland police Fraud Squad chief Detective Inspector Brian Hay was quoted as sayin by the Brisbane Times.
"It's a comfort thing for the victim.
"We are seeing more targeted attacks because people put information about themselves on to the web."
Offenders could spend months developing the online relationship, before hitting the victims up for money.
In the first six months of this year, more than $4 million has been sent by Queenslanders to Nigeria, where romance scamming is a thriving cottage industry, and on average, Australians are sending about $4.5 million each month to the African nation.
"It could be an email from someone claiming to have fallen on hard times, they communicate and correspond, then there's a request for money," said Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson.
"This of course touches at the heart of people's loneliness and personal circumstances, so that's a particularly cruel scam."
Two-thirds of victims are women, targeted on social networking pages, dating sites and Christian chat rooms.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: CTHAU