Spanish Police Warn Lone Expat Females Over Online Romance Scam

British expat women living in Spain are being warned over an online social network scam.

Spanish National Police are warning women expats in the country about a scam targeting Facebook users. Over the past few months, police have become aware of multiple cases of an online-based scam aimed at single female expats as well as local women. To date, thousands of euros have been lost to the same gang of tech-savvy criminals based in the country.

The gang’s modus operandum is to target vulnerable females and establish romantic online relationships in order to gain their victims’ trust. Once this is established, a plea for money to pay rent, fix a car or other feasible reasons is the next move. Once the cash is transferred, the scammers move on to groom their next victims, leaving their victims ashamed of their own stupidity as well as seriously out of pocket.

Spanish police now believe the Facebook scammers are the same criminal gang involved in robbing a 47-year old Zaragoza woman of €18,500, one of which used the same technique of promising her love before taking her cash and disappearing. Police traced the crook by analysing the online bank account transactions and arrested him, later realising he was a well-known member of a mafia-style gang specialising in financial fraud. Although this crook is still in custody, police are certain the remaining gang members are still active, and are warning lone local and expatriate females not to send money to men they’ve met online.