ua surge of 118% of romance scam recorded in 2021 compared to the previous year. About 300 victims a year, 4,500,000 euros stolen in 12 months. In the first 7 months of 2022, then, complaints grew by 39%. This is what the Police post about the love scams, an increasingly widespread phenomenon, even in Italy.
Catfishing, a growing phenomenon
Everything usually starts with a like, a kind comment from a profile with a photo of a handsome man. We then move on to courtship, increasingly close, which, within a few months, is revealed an emotional and, often, economic scam.
Stories like this, by catfishing, false identities, double lives and love scams are at the heart of the new programme I thought it was lovefrom April 14 on real-timeconducted by Verónica Ruggeri (one of the most popular Hyenas, entered the Italia 1 program team in 2013 at the age of 22).
The program I thought it was love
Produced by Stand by Me For Warner Bros. Discovery and also available on discovery+the scripted reality series tries to give a voice to those who have derived only deceptions and wounds from love.
«As soon as they proposed the program to me, I felt a certain affinity. Over the years I have dealt with many such stories. And I’ve always had an interest in these perverse minds who, for disparate interests, skillfully build fake relationships» says the well-known face of Hyenas at his first solo driving test.
Each story is retraced with reconstructions, interviews with actors who tell real stories, archival documents (with photos and videos from cell phones), and graphics that replicate chats. From these stories the viewer can draw food for thought, but also practically discover the techniques used by the scammers, avoiding falling into many traps firsthand.
The dream of great love
«At the base there is always the dream of a great love, faithful, sincere and passionate. A great desire to unconditionally love and trust each other. The first victims are the people who still believe in the power of feelings, even if returning from strong disappointments. It is precisely this condition that makes many women and men more fragile and therefore easy prey for emotional manipulation» explains Ruggeri, reflecting on the importance of being able to recognize the signs of deception in time.
The thirst for money or revenge
So many stories of catfishing are intertwined with cheating, ghosting and even revenge porn. The presenter explains: «In I thought it was love for example, let’s tell the story of a girl who she is hidden behind a male profile to take revenge on a friend of hers. You set up a fake relationship, knowing the victim’s weaknesses well and ordering her to post sexually explicit images of her on the net ».
Some love scams are easier to spot. There is usually a catfisher, typically charming and with a reliable profile, perhaps a soldier or a doctor, who breaks the prey’s heart from behind a screen and then begins to ask her money.
But other scammers are much sneakier. They carefully plan their scams, reaching the point of establishing a relationship of trust with the victim that has the appearance of a fairy tale, to all intents and purposes. It actually is an opportunity to extort money or carry out a vendetta.
The story of Raffaella and Salvatore
This is the case of Raffaella, a separate saleswoman after 15 years of marriage, and Salvatore, a self-styled Roman entrepreneur who moved to Costa Rica for business. Their virtual relationship – told in the first episode of I thought it was love – is a climax of shy compliments, romantic messages, dedications and missed appointments. Reached the peak of emotional tension, when Raffaella is totally vulnerable, Salvatore serves his plan, between ghosting and asking for money to make up for a theft immediately.
«It is one of the many cases in which, unfortunately, the solicitor with a false identity clouds the mind of the victim who becomes his pawn. Awareness comes too late when the psychological and economic repercussions are already very serious. It is often thought that only fragile people fall into these traps, while the data show that even professionals and well-known personalities are victims of love scams» comments Ruggeri.
The importance of information to prevent love scams
Offering suggestions and food for thought and delving into the techniques used by scammers, the program starting on Real Time aims to to warn women and men who can recognize themselves in varied stories, united by deception.
“The phenomenon is in constant growth also due to the widespread sense of loneliness in contemporary society. It is a real form of psychological violence, still not fully recognized», concludes Veronica Ruggeri. “For this reason, I believe that talking about it and inform as much as possible prevent so many people from falling into traps capable of destroying existence».
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