He matched with a woman who appeared to live in Manchester, like him. Ryan Chen (not his real name), 23, was a user of the Chinese-owned dating app Tantan. “These steps are designed to stop scams in their tracks and help protect the next potential victim.” “The Match Group brands instruct users to never send money to someone they met on our platforms, and to report any individual who asks that they do,” she says. Justine Sacco from the Match Group told Guardian Money that the company had a dedicated team and “sophisticated technology” that patrols for spam and fraud including automated or manual reviews of each member profile to block IP addresses from high-alert countries, identify stolen credit card numbers and detect suspicious language in profiles. The NCA says for the victims of sextortion, ‘the impact and repercussions can be long-lasting’. In late 2020 the Match Group, which owns Plenty of Fish, Tinder, as well as OkCupid, ran a series of romance fraud protection adverts as part of a campaign with Action Fraud. We know of at least four recent incidents in the UK where young men who were targeted saw no other way out than to take their own life.”ĭating apps are a common place for scammers to find their victims, with Action Fraud reporting that the top five platforms they use are Facebook, Plenty of Fish, Instagram, Tinder and. For them, it’s a low-risk and easy way to make money but for victims, the impact and repercussions can be long-lasting. “The majority of sextortion crimes can be traced back to organised crime groups, mostly based overseas. While both men and women can be victims, our evidence suggests that men aged between 19 and 35 are predominately targets,” an NCA spokesperson says. “Sadly, this a serious and organised crime that preys upon people’s emotions and vulnerability. The NCA says victims are often initially contacted through social media and dating websites. The majority of sextortion crimes can be traced back to organised crime groups, mostly based overseas National Crime Agency In 2015, the number of cases reported was only 345. The National Crime Agency (NCA) says reports of sextortion scams soared in 2020, from 1,607 reports in 2019 to 2,881. These involve acquiring intimate photos or videos of an individual, “nudes”, and using these to blackmail the victim. Another way that criminals extract money from unwitting daters is through sextortion scams.
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