Romantic scams: when victims pay more for love and the Halo effect works in favor of the criminal

Love or romance scams have become much more complex and difficult to recognize, adapting to the current landscape of online dating and applications. Scammers have set their sights on platforms as popular as Tinder or Bumble, and even social networks, to use the phishing and all types of fraud against the victims.

“We are all, to a greater or lesser extent, vulnerable to falling into a love scam, because as humans we are characterized, among other things, by our intrinsic need for connection and affection,” he explains in an interview for Computer Today Andrea Vizcaíno Cuenca, psychologist and CEO of Policlínica Maio.

According to the National Cybersecurity Institute, after creating a false profile and investigating the victim, Scammers try to move the conversation from the app to more secure communication platforms, such as WhatsApp, to avoid detection.

Banks also usually do not have much control over an elaborate scam until the final transaction, which is often manipulated to appear very normal. To top it all off, they rarely ask for money at the beginning of a conversation, as they may discuss financial concerns in a casual conversation or use financial problems as a reason not to meet.

Broadly speaking, scammers often take advantage of victims who live alone, which has been a big issue during the COVID-19 pandemic and It seems that you are experiencing a new boom in 2023 and 2024.

“They are apparently perfect for you. They create profiles on social networks, or in apps, adjusted to what the victim might be looking for. They design their profile as if it were a custom-made suit,” says the expert. “They show very short-term positive feelings and emotions. ‘I love you’, ‘You’re perfect’… All of this leads to mobilizing many emotions in the victim that make the relationship progress very quickly,” she adds.

Without going any further, you have surely heard about the high-profile case of Morata de Tajuña, in which three siblings—two women and a man—were found dead.

As explained by some people close to this family, “two men contacted the women through Facebook, posing as American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan,” to little by little get hold of an exorbitant amount of money.

Halo Effect: the bias that facilitates romance scams

This type of scam is based, in part, on the Halo effect, a cognitive bias that occurs when you form a general impression about a person and, from that impression, other characteristics are inferred from it. For example, if you see an attractive person, you tend to think that he or she is also intelligent, kind, and honest.

This bias occurs because the brain is constantly trying to simplify the information it receives. When you meet a new person, the brain tries to form a general impression of them as quickly as possible.. To do this, use first impressions, such as physical appearance, to make assumptions about the rest of the person’s characteristics.

In a nutshell, The Halo effect makes victims more likely to believe scammers’ stories and trust them. This is because, due to their physical appearance and the information they have given, victims associate scammers with a series of positive qualities, such as honesty, kindness and intelligence.

“I remember a patient I saw a few months ago, a victim of a love scam, who told me that the love she felt for that person prevented her from seeing beyond their requests: ‘The affection I received from them blinded me.’ And That’s right, through manipulation, they make you fall in love, they make you feel fused with the other person, they make you feel great empathy… They make you feel so good, that you give everything. You lose your sense of reason,” says Andrea Vizcaíno. .

“You feel important to the other person and you feel that the other person is very important to you, so when they ask you for money you see it as something natural within the “team” that you form with that person,” he adds.

Finally, clarify that since the 50s this type of people and mentalities have been registered in some criminology manuals like Ernst Seelig’s Treatise on Criminology, so you have to be aware and be able to see it from the outside and have all the information to really evaluate if you find yourself immersed in this dangerous situation.