Yahoo Yahoo 2.0: Top 5 warning signs to help you spot the next Tinder Swindler

In the chart-topping Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, three women describe how they were defrauded by convicted conman Simon Leviev (who was created by Shimon Hayut) after meeting him on the dating app.

The film provides a detailed and deeply personal account of how Leviev used Tinder to get in touch along with his victims and ultimately swindle them out of countless a large number of dollars. This is otherwise known as the famous yahoo-yahoo scam.

I have now been researching romance fraud for greater than a decade. I’ve heard the painful and traumatic stories of countless victims. While each story is exclusive, you can find common factors, and some wider lessons to learn.

The Tinder Swindler is a powerful exemplary case of so what can fail, but what does it teach us about romance fraud, and how will you avoid becoming the next victim?

What is romance fraud?

Romance fraudsters utilize the guise of an individual relationship to exploit their victim’s trust and gain an economic advantage (or sometimes, as ASIO this week warned, to get into private or classified information).

It typically happens online, via a dating website or app, or social media marketing platform. Oftentimes, the victim (also known as MAGA) and offender never actually meet. However, as The Tinder Swindler shows, it may also happen in face-to-face relationships.

Romance fraudsters use a selection of skillful grooming techniques, social engineering practices, and psychological abuse tactics to achieve compliance from their victims.

Leviev successfully manipulated several women by posing whilst the son of a stone magnate, before claiming his family had been violently threatened and asking his victims to get loans on his behalf to simply help cope with a purported security emergency.

Each of his actions was deliberate and purposeful, and is reflected across known offending patterns more broadly. Here are some typical tactics, all of which were used by Leviev:

1. Create an attractive profile and identity that exudes power, wealth, and status.
2. “Love-bomb” victims with grand expressions of affection, including moving rapidly towards being “a couple” and discussing a possible future together.
3. Manufacture an “emergency” that urgently requires financial help – this might be a business situation, medical problem or criminal justice issue such as claiming to have been arrested overseas.
4. Escalate these financial demands over time, typically by asking victims to transfer money, register credit cards or take out bank loans.
5. Threaten, abuse, or otherwise coerce the victim if they refuse.

Why do victims send money?

Watching from the safety of one’s family area couch, it’s easy to express “I wouldn’t fall for that”. But we mustn’t underestimate an experienced offender’s ability to spot a weakness or vulnerability and exploit it mercilessly.

Using surveys with victims and non-victims, research has revealed many traits connected with falling victim to romance fraud. Crucially, people who have higher levels of romanticized beliefs, or who rely on the thought of “true love”, are more prone to become victims.

Several victims, I spoke with could identify a certain reason that prompted their initial decision to interact having an offender. It might have been the increasing loss of a prior relationship or even a change in life circumstances (such as retirement or children leaving home). Oftentimes, a split-second decision to swipe directly on a profile, or answer an amiable message, changed their lives forever.

Someone’s amount of vulnerability to fraud isn’t static; it may change on a regular, weekly, as well as daily basis. Many victims wouldn’t have now been deceived had they seen the message at an alternative time. Offenders target a huge selection of victims in the hope of an individual success.

My research in addition has found many offenders use psychological abuse techniques just like those commonly present in domestic violence. Offenders might prevent victims from communicating with family and friends, bombard them with messages to monopolize their attention, or verbally abuse them to make them feel worthless. Every one of these tactics impair a victim’s ability to think clearly about their situation or seek help.

‘I’d never fall for it’

No victim wakes up each morning thinking “I’m going to give away all my money today. Instead, it’s the consequence of a painstaking grooming process. Offenders, having earned their victim’s trust, will often create realistic-looking contracts, bank statements or official letters to justify their requests for money.

They’ll typically depict these requests as both urgent and secret, as in case of Leviev’s “security emergency” by which he claimed to be trying to negotiate business deals during hiding. This tactic reduces the victim’s capability to respond rationally or seek outside advice.

Victims of romance fraud suffer a wide selection of negative impacts, including shame and social stigma. They’re often blamed and held accountable for their financial losses, and this stereotyping helps it be not as likely they’ll report such crimes.

How can I prevent it from happening to me?

Online dating is fraught enough and never have to bother about financial fraud. It’s hard to understand someone on a dating app is actually who they say they are.

Current fraud-prevention advice is targeted at taking the connection into actuality when you are feeling ready, and never giving money to someone you haven’t met face-to-face. However, in The Tinder Swindler, this advice is redundant because Leviev, like many offenders, had curated a real-life persona that matched his digital profile. This is Yahoo Yahoo 2.0.

In the yahoo yahoo 1.0, the offender does not show his real face to match a faked lifestyle.

The stark reality is a determined enough fraudster can extend their online lies into the offline world. Meeting someone personally, researching their background, and performing a reverse image search on the profile picture is all good advice – but it’s not foolproof.

Ultimately, fraud is almost always about money. So consider the motives behind any request for financial help, and never send money you can’t afford to lose.