Romance scam Ivory Coast –
Cote d’ivoire dating scams
A successful scam on the Internet is based on men or women pretending to be French, although they are actually African. They then get to know a partner on the net on a social media site or dating sites and later try to fleece him financially. How this works, you can read here.
Love scammers from France: the businessman travels to the Ivory Coast
Through social networks or online dating portals, alleged Frenchmen in Romance Scam contact women in all parts of the world.
In doing so, they write randomly in French to countless middle-aged or older women.
The romance scammers like to explain that they have interesting professions. At the top of the list are:
- Contractor
- Car dealer
- Cocoa trader
- Antique dealer
- Engineer
- Soldier
The scammer makes the victims fall in love while online dating
In a short time, these con artists intensify their contact with the woman more and more. Quickly, the French-speaking scammer says to his victim only: ma chérie.
In many cases, the man explains that he is widowed and has a child. In the meantime, he is free for love again and is looking for a new relationship.
The beautiful words become clearer and soon he declares his great love for the victim. He wants to come to her as soon as possible to start their future together.
But before that, he has to go to West Africa on business, mostly to the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire), Mali or Burkina Faso – countries where French is spoken.
A business trip to Africa is frequently used in scam scenarios. Sooner or later problems will arise and your online contact needs money.
In Africa something happens
While the man is in Africa, something bad happens to him.
Typical stories are:
- The oil rig caught fire.
- The man has been robbed and now has no money left.
- On the way to the airport, the man has had a bad accident and is in the hospital.
- He is with the UN peacekeeping force and has been wounded, but the rations are so bad.
- Drugs that do not belong to him were found in the cars he is dealing with and now he is stuck with the local police.
- A family member needs urgent surgery.
- Customs caught him because he was trying to smuggle ivory.
Every story ends at some point: the man always needs money. Of course, he only wants to borrow the money and will pay it back immediately when he is finally with her. But this never happens in reality with romance scams.
The victim sends money to Côte d’Ivoire via Western Union
De fraudster “sells” the stories very credibly, so that the woman feels obliged to provide him with financial help in the short term.
Because the man has no access to his money and is now in need, the victim eventually sends him money in cash via
- Western Union
- MoneyGram
- Ria Money Transfer.
Sometimes a transfer via bank account is possible, however in these cases a different, most of the time African name, is used.
The money is lost once and for all.
Private detective in Côte d’Ivoire checks out the man
Only when it is much too late does the victim realize the fatal mistake. The so great man on the beautiful photos does not exist in reality. The photos are stolen and the identity is fictitious or identity theft.
Behind the scams are Africans who have simply posed as Frenchmen. This online dating scam is called love scamming or romance scamming.
Because citizens in Côte d’Ivoire speak French, it is not even noticed that the man is not French, but African.
His tall tales in romance scams only serve to quickly get the money of the victimized women.
When our investigators in Ivory Coast check people, it almost always turns out that they are just fakes. That is, they don’t even exist. They are fake profiles with stolen pictures. So-called love scammers are hiding behind them.
Role model for every scammer: The Yahoo Boys from Nigeria
The first Africans to get rich quick with this scam were the so-called Yahoo Boys in Nigeria.
The Yahoo Boys are named after the Internet site Yahoo! This has offered free email accounts since the 90s. The scammers used these accounts to commit their crimes.
Quickly, many young people in Nigeria realized that there is much more money to be made from such a scam than from legal but hard work. That is why the number of these love scammers became bigger and bigger. Since then, the criminal organizations Nigeria Connection or Black Axe has been profiting from the helpfulness of victims.
Advance fee scam is called 419-scam
According to the Nigerian law, the yahoo boys are people who commit so-called “419” scams. This number refers to the article of the Nigerian Penal Code that deals with fraud. It is a type of crime in which the criminal usually receives money in advance. Therefore, it is called advance fee scam.
Scammers often send official looking documents, to “prove” that they are legit. However these documents are always forged or stolen.
More and more people “work” as scammers
Since the beginning of 2000, Internet fraud then spread rapidly among young people in Nigeria and Ghana.
Because Yahoo boys have high incomes and spend their money in the country, they enjoy a surprisingly good reputation, even though they are criminals. Through the scam, many young Nigerians were quickly able to buy expensive cars, houses, jewellery and other luxury goods.
In fact, this form of scam has become the sole means of livelihood for thousands of young people in these countries.
In Nigeria and Ghana, people speak English. Therefore, the scam runs out of these countries in English. There are countless scams such as this one: beware of fake US soldiers.
French-speaking countries in Africa follow suit on romance scams
People in other African countries realized how quickly you could get rich as romance scammers. Therefore, residents of other countries in Africa where French is spoken jumped on this bandwagon.
Primarily these are:
- Congo-Brazzaville (Republic of Congo).
- Ivory Coast (Republic of Côte d’Ivoire)
- Madagascar
- Cameroon
- Burkina Faso
- Niger
- Mali
- Senegal
- Benin
French-speaking Africa fraud focuses on people who speak French
From the mentioned countries in Africa, the scam runs in French. The scammers mainly “work” countries where potential victims speak at least partly French like:
- France
- Canada
- Belgium
- Switzerland.
But people in the USA, Spain or Italy are also affected when the criminals recognize, for example, from the profile on social media sites that someone speaks French.
The criminals leave behind broken hearts and not infrequently plunge women into financial hardship.
That’s why there’s a rule on the Internet: never send money to strangers you meet online and who you don’t know exactly who you’re dealing with and whom you have never seen in person.
If the question for money comes from someone you met through internet sites, it could always be romance scams. Con artists obtain large sums of money from their victims every day. Once the money has flowed, even the authorities can no longer help to recover it.
Are you in contact with someone who could be a scammer?
Have you met someone in online dating who is currently in Ivory Coast? Through a discreet investigation we check if this person is genuine.
If you have any doubts, it is better to talk to a private detective right away. Cases of scamming keep the investigators of our detective agency busy. Our experts will quickly find out whether you are dealing with a scammer or not. This is how we prevent you from falling victim to romance scams.
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