> ROMANCE PREDATORS
Ty Fortner’s profile on Sugar Daddies.com
credit card, send them to the victim’s
house, and ask the victim to ship the
goods back to them.
Check-kiting is another popular tactic. Romantic predators ask their victim
to cash a check for them and wire the
money along. Victims later discover that
the check they cashed never cleared and
that law enforcement officials are investigating them for fraud. According to
Sluppick, victims have ended up facing
criminal charges when all they thought
they were doing was helping someone
they loved in a perfectly legal way.
The list of strategies that prime a victim to do these things goes on and on,
and it all amounts to a steady courtship
and seduction aimed at making a victim
a softer and more accessible mark.
“I’m not afraid to call it grooming, because that’s what it is,” says Savage, the
FBI agent. “It doesn’t matter who you are,
what you look like, what your education
level is, or how much money you make.”
What scammers are good at, Savage
HUFFINGTON
06.24.12
said, is exploiting whatever vulnerability
they detect. For Bourgeois, that meant the
promise of a baby. For Wheaton, it may
well have been as simple as her scammer
knowing she was a good Christian.
Although the majority of romance
scams are still dominated by men working
out of West Africa, in recent years similar
schemes have also started emanating from
other parts of the world, according to analysts and law enforcement officials.
Savage, the FBI agent, says the growth
reflects the success predators are enjoying.
“We are seeing it from all corners of
the world,” he says. “I think we’re seeing
the majority of it from Africa, but if it’s
working, then other people are going to
jump on board with it.”
MALE MODELS
Fred, who is 49 and works as a physician in the Chicago area and asked that
his full name not be used for this article,
says he began an online relationship two
years ago with someone he believed to be
a male model from St. Petersburg. Fred
admits that he’s a romantic who falls in
love quickly, and that all the model really had to do to draw him in was give him
some attention.
“I’m shy. I’m quiet. I do have low
self-esteem,” Fred says. “I have a very
hard time meeting people, whether it’s
romantic love, friendship, anything.
And he made it so easy.”