This is catfishing on an industrial scale
Emilija Manevska/Getty Images This wasn’t supposed to happen. In 2020, in a house surrounded by fields in the Irish countryside, Liam, 19, sat at his laptop, an energy drink fizzing at his elbow. He leaned in for a better look at the profile photo and, sure enough, saw the face of an old rugby friend…
Romance scammers are bilking Americans out of $1.3 billion a year
Kate Kleinert was home by herself one day in summer 2020 when she received a friend request from an attractive stranger on Facebook. He introduced himself as Tony, a Norwegian physician stationed in Iraq. Kate, who is 69, often received friend requests from single men. They usually fell in the same category: handsome, successful, and stationed…
