SHAH ALAM - Scammers leveraged pictures of attractive individuals to lure their targets to fall victims to love scams, as physical attraction is one of the key aspects of getting someone interested.
Experts said scammers knew this and used it as a modus operandi when preying on the lonely and vulnerable.
University of Science Malaysia lecturer Professor Dr Intan Hashimah Mohd Hashim also listed several other reasons why people become attracted to each other which include proximity, repeated exposure, and similarity.
"Scammers take their time to get to know their victims and possibly try to show that they have many similarities with them,” she said.
Dr Intan described the perpetrators as psychopaths, adding that most scammers succeeded at what they do as they lack empathy and were able to be charming when swindling people, allowing them to manipulate their victims.
Despite opinions that scammers were usually men preying on unsuspecting women, University Malaya’s Faculty of Law Criminologist and senior lecturer Dr Haezreena Begum Abdul Hamid said that scammers involved in love scams could either be male or female.
These scammers, she said, were highly persuasive and charming.
"Romance scammers are highly charming, incredibly supportive and have a silver tongue.
"They say all the right words, feeding the victims what they want to hear or need,” she told Sinar Daily.
Since scams took place online between people who have never met, a love scam could take anywhere between a day to several weeks the scammer to lure the victims, Dr Haezreena said.
She added what was dangerous about this was that long-term scams can be viewed as real love affairs from the victim’s perspective so they would end up devastated and heartbroken besides having to deal with losing a large sum of money.
Even when they realised they were scammed, victims might be in denial and would try to make sense of what was happening by trying to provide justifications for the scammer’s actions.
Despite the cruel and unjust actions on the scammer’s part, Dr Haezreena mentioned that there would naturally be a bond or an attachment between the two parties when continuous communication is involved.
"Scammers do grow fond of their victims, but their ultimate aim is to swindle money from them. I call this romance for benefits.
"They may even enjoy their conversations with their victims and find this made-up love affair entertaining and therapeutic,” she said.
Dr Haezreena added once the scammers have reached their goal, the breakup could affect the scammers too but it was minimal because they have successfully swindled money from the victims.
She said that scammers were just ordinary people with no "heart of steel” but they were able to detach their personal feelings from what they view as just a job.
The criminologist said that many of them knew they were cheating people of their money but thought their actions were justified in doing so because they were selling their energy, time, and self.
Dr Haezreena said the scariest part is that anyone could fall victim to scammers – the perpetrators played with one’s feelings and did not care who they approached, either people who were married, widowed, divorced, or even single.
The easiest victim, she said, were lonely individuals or those who were vulnerable.
Victims did not get scammed because they were dumb, but because they were engaged in wishful thinking.
"Scammers are not highly intelligent either but the need for money drives them to invent ways of getting money.
"Not all scammers are poor, and they might just need the money to fund a lavish lifestyle,” Dr Haezreena said.
Although the was no golden rule of the time frame taken for people to fall in love on average, Eunoia Mind Wellness Hub clinical psychologist Chin Xiuli told Sinar Daily that love scammers relied on individuals they can manipulate and control.
"These methods mostly evoke emotional responses so that they can build trust easily with their targets.
"There are many reasons that people get tricked. Intelligence might be just of them, but scores of other factors might contribute to the issue, such as underlying emotional needs that are not adequately met, family values or upbringing, financial issues, societal pressures to find a partner, and so forth,” she said.
Xiuli added the effects could be devastating and highly traumatic to the victim as they would feel distraught and betrayed since it is a betrayal of trust, which was a powerful yet delicate quality that all humans have then it would affect all areas of the victims’ life.
Any action that intentionally breaks trust, she emphasised, was detrimental to a person’s well-being.