Nowadays, it is normal to meet your partner on a dating website, but due to this great popularity, criminals are also attracted. So called “Love Scammers”.
These scammers pretend to be interesting people, usually a good-looking person, by stealing pictures from other social media accounts.
They consider everything as a service to the women and not as a scam. That is why they call the victims clients internally.
Popular professions the scammer claims to be are:
- fake soldier
- fake pilot
- or fake doctor
But one particularly devious scam is that of the offshore oil rigs worker.
The oil rig scammer claims to be a petroleum engineer working offshore. The alleged wife died of cancer, and the child would be in a boarding school in equally remote parts of the world.
The preferred victims are middle-aged to older women, as younger individuals often have fewer financial resources, and thus less potential prey.
For example, romance scammers are on platforms such as:
- LOVOO
and many more dating sites.
The approach of the scammers
Although there are many different stories and executions of scammers, the main points of the approach of the scammers are often the same. Their stolen profile photos often show attractive men, thus their profiles are viewed more often, and friendship requests from them are rejected less often. Once they have found a promising profile, they contact it via the messenger of the app or website in question.
Supposedly he is:
- American
- British
- Norwegian
- Italian
- Canadian
Many scammers claim to perform oil rig works in the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico.
The supposed offshore workers usually write in English or in the victim’s native language, but often a translation program is used so that the sentences seem a bit slanted. However, the operatives seldom notice this because their command of the language is limited or because they are already in love at this point.
Right at the beginning of the conversation, the alleged oil rig worker talks about love, or even sends “self-written” poems or collages, which often feature hearts.
Furthermore, he seems to spend every free minute of his time with them, and almost virtually participates in their lives.
He finds such beautiful words and writes in a way that you do not know at all. At the same time, the scammer tells you that you are the only person that is able to help him in this difficult time. He also often sends photos, but these are never taken spontaneously, but prefabricated, so that it can never be recognized when they were taken.
In some cases, the victim even receives e-mails from his daughter, but she does not have a cell phone and therefore has limited communication with her father and can´t make phone calls, or video calls.
Who wouldn’t be influenced by that? Throw any scepticism overboard. After all, how could he not be real? After all, you do see him – even if only in pictures. Talking to him, getting emails or text messages that go on and on, getting more and more heartfelt. More emotional. Who could make something like that up?
In fact, scammers are very good at what they do. They are trained to penetrate deep into the person’s psyche. Make you addicted to yourself after some time. Addicted to the love, the attention and in a way the “care”. Because that’s exactly what they see as their job: they take care of the women, fulfil their desires and make them pay for it only once in a while.
They consider everything as a service to the women as a daily routine and not as a scam. That is why they call the victims clients internally.
Willingly, the women pay a high price for all this. Up to high five-figure or even six-figure sums. But that seems to be worth it to them.
The scammer wants money
Something bad is happening on the platform
By a tragic coincidence, his credit card is blocked, but at that very moment an important load of materials or tools needs to be paid for by him. This is very important, because he can only complete his task with exactly these tools. If this task is not completed, he may not get off the ship, and cannot visit his lady.
Therefore, it would be important for him to have the victim advance him a certain amount of money.
The Replacement
Another common variant is that he would have to provide a replacement while he is on vacation, since his work is so important. Since his credit card is blocked, the scammer persuades the victim to write an email to his supposed company to find out the salary of the replacement, and pay.
Often, a helicopter must be organized to get off the platform and a plane ticket to get out of the country. However, the scammer pockets all the money himself, and will never pay anything back as promised.
Medical bill
He is injured so badly in a work accident that the wound cannot be treated at such a rig, but his health insurance in the U.S. is too bad. As a result, he cannot pay for his treatment. Therefore, you must pay for hospitalization, and ambulance transport. Alternatively, a family member has fallen ill at home and he urgently needs money for treatment.
He is constantly confronted with problems that have to be solved together. After all, they are soul mates, almost married.
Expiring Internet contract
Since there was no Wi-Fi on the rig, he would have to buy data credit every month. However, he could not afford the amount for the next month. Therefore, either communication with the outside world would stop for him, or you would send him money to be able to access the Internet.
How do I know that he is a romance scammer?
Pay attention to the red flag that appears in your mind’s eye. A stranger will rarely fall in love with you after one or two weeks. Also, a normal person does not ask for money after a few days of contact.
Workers are only 7 to 21 days at a time on the oil rigs in no case someone is not at home for months. The time at home and the time on the platform is approximately the same.
The transport home is free of charge in any case, sometimes they are flown directly home if they do not live near the port.
During the time the workers are on the platform, they work hard. A real worker would never have the opportunity to chat with online contacts for hours.
Offshore rigs have a high-speed internet connection, as they’re needed to communicate with the mainland. Each employee is allowed to access the internet, video chat with their family members, and play video games after the end of their shift. If anyone on the internet claims they do not have internet on a rig, they are most certainly a scammer.
Our advice, when you´re in contact with a man on an oil rig
- Never send money to unknown people you only know from chats on the Internet, even if they seem to be a very handsome man.
- Never send nude photos to a stranger, with which he could blackmail you later.
- Do not send a copy of your ID or passport to anybody.
- Do not send iTunes card numbers to a stranger.
- Do not allow someone to transfer money to your bank account that you are supposed to forward. You will then unintentionally become a financial agent, which can be punishable by law.
You can find more advice in our article Oil Rig Engineer Scammer.
Is he a real guy working on an oil rig?
Are you writing to someone who works on a rig and now you are not sure if it is real or if it is a case of identity theft? Then we have good news: we can find out the truth for you.
Send us all the data you have from the man via contact form. You will then receive an offer for a background check on the man.
Through our check you protect yourself from fraud with the help of a stolen picture and a fictitious profile.
Related Articles:
