Monday, January 20, 2025
spot_img

Online romance scams on the rise as dating apps proliferate

Date:

Share post:

spot_img
spot_img

As millions of people get hooked to online dating platforms, their proliferation has led to online romance scams becoming a modern form of fraud that have spread in several societies along with the development of social media like Facebook Dating, warn researchers.
For example, extra-marital dating app Gleeden has crossed 10 lakh users in India in COVID-19 times while dating apps like Tinder and Bumble have gained immense popularity.
According to researchers from University of Siena and Scotte University Hospital led by Dr Andrea Pozza, via a fictitious Internet profile, the scammer develops a romantic relationship with the victim for 6-8 months, building a deep emotional bond to extort economic resources in a manipulative dynamic.
“There are two notable features: on the one hand, the double trauma of losing money and a relationship, on the other, the victim’s shame upon discovery of the scam, an aspect that might lead to underestimation of the number of cases,” the authors wrote in a paper published in the journal Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health.
Around 1,400 dating sites/chats have been created over the last decade in North America alone.
In the UK, 23 per cent of Internet users have met someone online with whom they had a romantic relationship for a certain period and even 6 per cent of married couples met through the web.
The results showed that 63 per cent of social media users and 3 per cent of the general population reported having been a victim at least once.
Women, middle-aged people, and individuals with higher tendencies to anxiety, romantic idealization of affective relations, impulsiveness and susceptibility to relational addiction are at higher risk of being victims of the scam.
Online romance scams are, in other words, relationships constructed through websites for the purpose of deceiving unsuspecting victims in order to extort money from them. (IANS)

spot_img
spot_img

Related articles

‘Landmark day for Indian sports’: Tendulkar congratulates Kho Kho teams on WC win

New Delhi, Jan 20: Legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, on Monday, congratulated the Indian men's and women's Kho Kho...

No plan to hike power tariffs in Assam: Power Minister

Guwahati, Jan 20: Assam Power Minister Prasanta Phukan on Monday said that there is no possibility of a...

Uttarakhand UCC approved: Marriage registration, live-in provisions retained; personal law disputes excluded

New Delhi, Jan 20: The Uniform Civil Code (UCC) rules approved by the Uttarakhand government on Monday avoided...

Assam: Woman gives birth to baby at Guwahati railway station

Guwahati, Jan 20: In a dramatic turn of events, a woman from Bihar gave birth to a baby...