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“Working with dozens of possible outcomes, they carefully lay out every possible response, including dealing with broke guys who fell in love online,” said Alex Holden, the security expert who intercepted the romance scam package. Then there are dozens of pre-fabricated excuses for not talking on the phone, an activity reserved for the final stretch of the scam when the fraudster typically pretends to be stranded at the airport or somewhere else en route to the target’s home town. The scammer often pretends to be a young woman in an isolated or desolate region of Russia who is desperate for a new life, and the email from the girl’s supposed mother is intended to add legitimacy to the scheme. For instance, scammers are urged to include an email from the mother of the girl in the first 10 emails between the scammer and a target. The dating scam package advises customers to stick to a tried-and-true approach.
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One of hundreds of sample template files in the dating scam package. The proprietor also claims that his method is more than 20% effective within three replies and over 60% effective after eight. The vendor of the fraud package advertises a guaranteed response rate of at least 1.2 percent, and states that customers who average 30 scam letters per day can expect to earn roughly $2,000 a week.
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The romance scam package is designed for fraudsters who prey on lonely men via dating Web sites and small spam campaigns. Many of the sample emails read a bit like Mad Libs or choose-your-own-adventure texts, featuring decision templates that include advice for ultimately tricking the mark into wiring money to the scammer. The dating scam package is assembled for and marketed to Russian-speaking hackers, with hundreds of email templates written in English and a variety of European languages. Recently, I had a chance to review a package of dating scam emails, instructions, pictures, videos and love letter templates that are sold to scammers in the underground, and was struck by how commoditized this type of fraud has become. That includes dating scams - among the oldest and most common of online swindles. Virtually every aspect of cybercrime has been made into a service or plug-and-play product.