“The end justifies the means” is a catchphrase often attributed to the Italian writer and politician Niccolo Machiavelli. The goal of Ukrainians is to survive and win the war that Russia and Vladimir Putin personally have unleashed against them.
Sometimes, the means to that cause are fraudulent. One such method is scamming unsuspecting Russians through internet dating websites. Ukrainian scammers make up fake profiles and earn the emotional trust of the target before asking for money. These scams take advantage of a person’s desire for companionship, but the person truly does not realize that the money will be sent to the war effort of the Ukrainian army. This article examines how such scams work and their ramifications.
Research has shown that this scheme found its origins in Ukraine in 2020, the year when virtual dating apps became very popular due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scammers have taken advantage of the loneliness of many individuals, especially the Russian men looking for romance online. The scam began with a few tech-savvy people. As the money-making potential became more apparent, the operation developed. The vulnerabilities of their victims were what the scammers drew upon, hence devising a very structured and highly lucrative scheme.
These scams gradually became more sophisticated in their methods of deception, using teams to fake the profiles. Very often, they included female profiles with comprehensive descriptions and pictures that were detailed. The scammers made friendly relationships over time, gaining the trust of their targets before making requests for money under false pretenses.
Victims of their crimes are Russian people who have been serving or supporting the government of Russia, either as soldiers, police officers, or government workers since hostilities started. The men think they are talking to Russian ladies within Russia who want to get a partner. Most of the scammers involved are Ukrainian ladies from the war-torn areas intentionally scamming their targets. These ladies masquerade as being Russians, keeping their identities hidden to further exploit the targets.
The Ukrainian romance scammers appeal to their victims’ sympathies by bringing up personal struggles or contrived crises. The men believe themselves to be saving fellow Russians, although they are transferring money to people suffering from the very conflict they support.
This adds a layer of irony and revenge, as the scammers use these funds to assist those suffering from the war. Their victims, who are mostly involved in the war, become contributors to the opposing side inadvertently.
The fraudsters create fake profiles on popular dating websites and social networks, like Facebook or Instagram. These are profiles of handsome women and men with attached stories. Whenever there is a message from an interested victim, the fraudsters start long conversations, establishing emotional connections. Most of the time, they play the role of women who seek love and are very caring in manipulating the feelings of their victims.
Once they have gained the trust of their victims, there are lots of ways that scammers would ask for money. After the rapport builds up, the scams ask for money for emergencies. Another scheme commonly invites the victim to buy tickets for concerts or art exhibitions. None of the events will happen, but with legitimate-looking websites, the scammers made such events appear so real. Victims were asked to pay for said tickets with cryptocurrency in order to make it difficult to trace the transactions.
Right after the victim pays for the tickets, the scammer will claim something went wrong and will ask for other payments to “sort out the problem.” That results in the cycle of payments where the victim keeps on sending money to the criminal with hopes that it will work out. The scammers also create fake customer support lines to further convince the victims that the transactions are legitimate.
The financial scales of these scams range from minor to significant sums lost by some victims. Although the initial claims can be quite minimal, most of them usually tend to increase as time goes by. Scammers are good at manipulating their targets to keep them sending money after they have made several payments. In a few incidents, some victims have lost considerable amounts before realizing they were being scam-targeted.
Scams can cost the individual victim anywhere from a few hundred dollars to several thousands. The scams are incredibly lucrative for the fraudsters, and the funds are put against several purposes including war efforts.
The money goes partly to the scammers, but the greater proportion is channeled to the ongoing war. Some of it is used to buy supplies for the military and humanitarian assistance for those affected by the war. The crime operatives legitimize their criminal activities as contributing to the war effort of their country.
The scammers see these frauds as a form of retaliation towards the enemy and believe this tactic uses the enemy’s resources to finance their defense. This perceived justification frees them from guilt as they continue their fraud operations, knowing the damages they are causing to their victims.
These scammers view their war operations as a war and ways to survive. In their minds, scamming Russian men is a way of retaliating against the country, which they believe destroyed them with war and afflicted them with suffering. They do this to the extent that such funds are meant to aid their military in ways essential to the war.
The moral consequences are minor compared to the enormous backdrop of conflict for many Ukrainian scammers.
Retribution is often a motivating factor among women living in countries that have faced areas of destruction at the hands of the Russian forces, especially residents of the eastern regions in Ukraine like Kharkiv and Donetsk. They don’t view their victims as victims but rather as representatives of the enemy. Therefore, they may feel or tell themselves it isn’t wrong, even if their targets suffer quite serious financial and emotional harm. In their opinion, the ends supporting their country in wartime justify the means.
The rise of these scams has drawn attention from international authorities who are working in opposition against such cybercrimes. Awareness among potential victims, particularly in Russia, is being given about the dangers of online scams. Since some countermeasures have been adopted by dating sites to find and remove links to such fake profiles, scammers are constantly refining their techniques to outsmart actions made to catch them.
Along with awareness, international law enforcement agencies have been trying hard to trace and shut down the operations that lie behind many scams. However, the application of anonymous payment means, like cryptocurrency, makes tracing money difficult, as does the fact that many of the scammers reside outside of the reach of international law.
This conflict between Ukraine and Russia has given birth to some new and innovative forms of cybercrime, including fake dating profiles scamming unsuspecting victims. Further, these scams picked at the emotional vulnerabilities of respective victims and provided money for the war effort. Morality-wise, these are complex issues, yet their effects cause financial and moral damage to Russian men. As the conflict continues, these scams are bound to adapt and change with time, making it all the more necessary for people to be attentive to their online interactions.
