UK insurers are being warned about a twist on romance fraud -- fraudsters using dating apps to recruit accomplices for bogus motor claims.
Instead of asking for money, the scammer persuades their partner, or someone they are dating, to say that they have witnessed a car accident, were a passenger in a collision, or take out a policy and submit a fake claim. According to a report from The Guardian, fraud hinges on using the victim's identity to legitimise the loss, rather than drain their savings.
The Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB), which acts as the UK market’s counter-fraud intelligence hub, said it has seen a number of these cases in the past year and believes many more incidents are likely going unreported.
In the dating-app variant, the scammer targets people they believe can be persuaded to be complicit in fraud, rather than those with substantial savings.
“You don’t have to have lots of money to be a target of this scam because all they need is your identity,” Nicola Smith, intelligence and investigation manager at the IFB, said. “What they want from you is your agreement to take part in a scam.”
Victims may be asked to say they witnessed an accident, to claim they were a passenger when a crash occurred, or to assert they were injured and then pursue a personal injury claim. Fraudsters often supply a ready-made script about what supposedly happened.
According to Smith, embarrassment and the fact that many...
There's a new twist to the old romance fraud on dating sites UK insurers are being warned about a twist on romance fraud -- fraudsters using dating apps to recruit accomplices for bogus motor claim...