African online dating scams

SABRIC Cautions Women to be Alert on Dating Sites and Social Media Platforms

With many people turning to online dating to meet new people, security experts warn of the increasing risks of falling prey to sophisticated romance scams enabled by the emergence of artificial intelligence AI and generative AI tools. Described as a video or image that uses AI to realistically imitate humans, deepfakes are a growing concern fuelling online romance scams. While online scammers have been defrauding victims for decades, the growth of dating sites and the emergence of more advanced technologies enables them to do so in a faster and more convincing manner — at a lower risk of being caught, notes Karrim. A study conducted by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research found the value of romance and business e-mail compromise scams reached R millionin Doros Hadjizenonos, regional SADC director at security firm Fortinet, says that at first, deepfakes were used mostly to create non-consensual pornographic material as a form of harassment. In the new era, they are increasingly being used in attempts at blackmail and fraud, as well as in romance scams. Generative AI helps criminals create error-free messages in seconds, whereas in the past, suspicious e-mails often got flagged by security tools or the recipient, due to poor spelling and grammar.

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Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning. Catfishing, sextortion, phishing and other romance scams are big business for fraudsters. According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre Sabric , some terror groups have been targeting South Africans to finance their criminal acts through romance scams.

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Bukola Adebayo. Staflex pictured by his laptop in Accra, Ghana on June 14, Poverty and unemployment are driving Ghana's youth into the dark underbelly of identity theft and romance scams. But the year-old has since abandoned both his studies and football for a vocation that keeps him up at night: finding and luring victims into online romance scams. In one bedroom in Accra, Starflex and his two friends Suleiman, 19, and Patrick, 18, huddle over their phones and laptops, exchanging intimate messages with "pals", their code name for potential victims they meet on dating sites.

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Romance scammers are now building trust with AI-generated deepfakes. Here's how to spot them.

A recent survey shows that over 49 million people in the United States alone have tried online dating. This can be a great way for singles to meet their perfect match, but is also a way for cybercriminals to seek out their victims. The increased prevalence of romance scams is worrying and very difficult to curb given that the modus operandi exploits the emotions of the victim who believes that they are in a romantic relationship with someone who allegedly cares for them. Such communications are usually confidential and very personal and victims are often too embarrassed to publically admit to being manipulated and ultimately defrauded.

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