The German scammed by a Paraguayan and the danger of "cat fishing" in dating applications – 18/02/2019

Heide Mareike Rachidi is a 31 year old German who has made headlines in recent days when it was discovered that she was stuck at the Asunción airport in Paraguay after being Scam with several thousand euros for a Paraguayan that there was love online.

The woman traveled from Berlin marry who she thought was Blas Antonio Bogado, a Paraguayan lawyer met through a dating app and to whom he transferred an undisclosed amount of money around the 5,000 euros (although the first reports speak of 500 000 euros) for, allegedly, to build a home in Paraguay.

However, he barely stepped into the man of the neighboring country ended the relationship, and the woman was left at the airport, with Broken Heart and ask for money to come back to your country

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The disappointment was discovered by the Paraguayan media, and the man is not really a lawyer, nor Blas: it's about Daniel Céspedes, prisoner in Tacumbú penitentiary where is serving 25 years for intentional homicide.

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What is "catfishing" or cheating in dating apps?

"Catfishing" is a type of cheating online this happens mostly in dating apps, in which a person he claims to be an ideal candidate and after to fall in love to his prey he asks money using different excuses.

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And does the world of online dating give for all tastes: it is estimated that there is more than 8,000 platforms with this type of services, and every day hundreds of new applications seem to satisfy a market that moves about two billion dollars a year.

According to data from GlobalWebindex, in Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, apps and dating sites have a acceptance between 45% and 46%, while in the United States and Europe this figure is between 28% and 29%. In countries like the United States, moreover, 30% of people ages 18-29 use an app or dating site.

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In addition, forecasts estimate that by 2023, the number of online dating service users worldwide will exceed 328 million, of which it is estimated that 48.1 million will be users of Europe and 37.5 million will be nothing more than the United States.

It's a fertile ground so that all kinds of scams proliferate, especially since many They expect to meet their better half on these platforms, and many times that is presented as our soul mate He may turn out to be a teacher in the art of deception.

For example, in 2018 and Australia only, they were reported 3,981 scam cases related to online dating via social networks, applications or websites, which represented losses of over $ 24 million, according to Scamwatch.

In the United Kingdom, the National Fraud Intelligence Office revealed in 2017 that every three hours, a case of fraud related to online dating has been reported, while more recent figures released by Action Fraud revealed that throughout 2018, more than 4,500 complaints about Internet scams and it is estimated that 63% of the victims are women, the BBC reported.

How to protect yourself from cheating

The phenomenon has become so important that Eset's security experts have issued a series of recommendations to consider.

• If you know anyone who after a few contacts begins to express very deep feelings about you and asking you to continue chatting outside of the app or site, be careful. Wanting to leave the platform on which they met should be enough to Warning.

• Suspect if you feel certain inconsistencies between what counts and what we see in their social network profiles.

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• It is common that after a while (weeks or months) and after establishing some trust, the person you know tells a very well elaborated story that ends with a mandate, send a gift or something similar. Remember Never send money to someone you have not met personally..

• Suspicion of someone who always has a excuse for do not see you personally.

• Search the Web for the imagery that he sends you or uses on his account to corroborate who he is who he says he is. In this way, you can corroborate whether the photos are legitimate or if you have taken them from the Internet. You can use Google Images or TinEye for this.

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• Never share with the person you meet, especially if you do not know them personally, information that you can use. engage yourself, how can they be images o videos.

• If you decide to meet someone you have met online, this is never tell someone then you know.

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