If you want to find the happiness of love nowadays, just go online, where there’s an almost unlimited choice of potential fairy-tale princes and princesses worldwide. But beware! Hearts yearning for love are ready to believe all promises and calls – no matter how improbable. These love-starved hearts fall prey to various scammers who use them to obtain money.
With the war in Russia and Ukraine leading to the closure of some social networks, romance scams in Russia might see a decline.
The social network Instagram was suspended in Russia at midnight on Sunday, March 14. Authorities accused the service of spreading anti-Russian rhetoric in the context of the war with Ukraine. The focus was on a statement from Meta, Instagram’s parent company, as well as Facebook and WhatsApp, which declared on Thursday that it would make exceptions to its rules on incitement to violence in Facebook posts by not removing posts hostile to the Russian army and leaders.
The Russian telecommunications agency Roskomnadzor announced a two-day deadline on Friday for users to move their content and communities to other authorized platforms.
Social networking sites have been touted as the next public sphere of the generation, where people discuss issues of public interest with great seriousness. Lately, social media has played a key role in activism. Many activists who played a crucial role in the “Arab Spring” used social media as a key tool to express their thoughts on the injustices perpetrated by their governments.
The closure of social networks in Russia implies the shutdown of all accounts. Romance scams operate more on social networks. The scammer, using a fake online profile, contacts the victim on platforms like Facebook. Initially, they exchange a few innocent words, say something to each other, and surprisingly, the scammer quickly declares that they have fallen in love.
So, if the victim follows, they are showered with sweet words until they actually fall in love—with a delusional person.
If the victim is a heterosexual man, the illusion takes the convenient form of a dream woman. Needless to say, the scammer’s real gender is irrelevant.
For weeks and months, the alleged romantic relationship is built on Skype, WhatsApp, etc. Plans for the future are made until the final decision is made to meet.
However, shortly before the meeting, the scammer claims to have had an accident, fallen ill, or been robbed at the airport. The chosen representative is then asked to pay for medical treatment, travel, or other expenses, and the payment is to be made through a money transfer platform or offshore account. However, new problems arise, and each time, the victim is invited to pay. However, the meeting never takes place.
In an increasingly personalized world, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and many others allow people to connect with each other and professionals to find suppliers or customers. But at the same time, they create a gap between reality and the virtual world. Social media is not static and certainly brings positive aspects to many areas of our world, but we must not forget to fully live our lives. We must learn to use it in moderation and not get lost in a virtual world where nothing is real!
