Dating scammers can be ingenious

By Yuriko Kako-Batt, Malware Analyst, Symantec Hosted Services
Dating scams are a common spam email problem.  Spam relating to sex or dating currently accounts for approximately 4 percent of global spam.  In a typical scam, a recipient (male or female) would receive an email from a stranger and the email might say something along the lines of: “I found your information on a website. I think you are my true love…write back to me soon”.  If the recipient replies to the email, the scammer would begin to write to them with stories about their family, their background and how much they love the recipient; any number of subjects are discussed, and flattering/suggestive comments are made, until at some point the attacker feels that the potential victim has been socially engineered to the point that they trust the attacker.

Some typical dating scam emails
At that point, the victim is usually asked by the attacker to send money to them for a supposed flight to visit the victim, or money for an ill family member’s treatment.  It’s all complete fabrication on behalf of the attacker, but much like a traditional 419-style advance fee fraud, it’s all about the attacker building up the victim’s trust and using that trust to get the victim’s money.  
However, unlike a 419 scam, these are much more personal, (continue reading...)