These days, confidence attacks and romance fraud attacks are very common. An attacker deceives a victim into believing the attacker and the victim have a trust relationship, whether family, friendly or romantic. So, victim will trust to attacker. At this time, the attacker asks the victim to send money to the attacker. Or the victim may provide the attacker with personal or financial information (about himself, another person, or the organization).

There are other attacks that are very similar to these attacks (confidence attacks and romance fraud attacks), but with a slight difference. Among them we can mention romance/dating scams or the grandparent scam. This type of attack is very close to phishing attacks.

You probably think that this attack should not be so serious. Or you think may not be very effective. If you think so, you are sorely mistaken. According to FBI report about cyber-crime in 2019, the attack caused about $ 475 million in loss to individuals and organizations. In other words, after the BEC and EAC attacks, this type of attack has caused the most loss. Note that this is only for the United States, not all countries. (2019 INTERNET CRIME REPORT, Page 20)

To deal with this type of attack, you just have to educate and inform the people. Here are some tips for people:

  • Don’t share personal details: Do not publish your personal information. On social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, and messengers, do not publish your personal information (such as where you live, date of birth, date of marriage) publicly (for example, in the Bio section in Instagram).
  • Don’t send or receive money: If someone on social media claims to know you and then asks you for information (such as a bank account number or credit card number), never give them that information. If you think you may really know the person, ask him (or her) for a phone number and be sure to call him ( or her) to make sure he are the same person they are claiming. It is strongly recommended that you refrain from dating.
  • Use trusted dating websites: Fraudsters try to convince you to interact with them via social media or Messengers. Why? Because this causes that the dating website has no proof of them asking you for money. If you’re in touch with someone on this type of website, communicate with them only through the site’s messaging services.