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  • Geebo 8:00 am on April 30, 2025 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Wyoming   

    Romance Scam Hits Small-Town Wyoming 

    By Greg Collier

    A recent incident in the small town of Lovell, Wyoming, underscores a sobering truth. Online scams do not just target those in bustling cities or tech-heavy regions. Even in close-knit rural communities, no one is immune to digital deception.

    In this case, a local woman became the target of a romance scam after a well-meaning family member signed her up for a dating site. Although she was not seeking a relationship, she soon found herself fielding message after message from strangers claiming to be lonely widowers. Many of them followed a script, asking the same questions and offering similar life stories. With no prior experience on dating platforms, she did her best to proceed carefully, but the patterns went unnoticed at first.

    Eventually, one online suitor stood out. He presented himself as a hardworking professional traveling abroad, someone grounded, warm, and seemingly sincere. Over time, he built trust without immediately asking for money. He sent flowers, shared music, and made her feel seen. The emotional connection grew, and when a crisis arose, she stepped in to help, believing she was supporting a friend in need.

    What she did not realize until much later was that the crisis was invented. The requests for help were part of a well-crafted manipulation. She ended up sending funds she could not afford to lose. Thankfully, with the help of family and a trusted financial institution, the damage was limited. But the emotional toll was real.

    Scams like these are often underreported, partly due to embarrassment and shame. Victims may blame themselves, but experts stress that anyone can be fooled. The emotional tactics used by scammers are calculated and convincing. Once they succeed, victims may be flagged as potential targets and find themselves approached by other scammers. These operations are organized, profitable, and often shielded by international jurisdictions, making recovery of funds nearly impossible.

    Local law enforcement officials say they are limited in how much they can do unless they are contacted before money changes hands. Once a scam progresses, jurisdictional challenges and international laundering schemes make intervention difficult. This highlights the need for early reporting and open dialogue between the public and authorities.

    In rural areas like Lovell, the belief that “it can’t happen here” can create a false sense of security. But the internet has changed the landscape. Scammers are no longer limited by geography. An internet connection is all it takes for a fraudster to virtually slip through the front door of any home.

    Authorities urge people to remain vigilant when interacting online, especially in emotionally vulnerable spaces like dating platforms. Building trust with someone online should never happen at the expense of common sense. Verification is key, and friends, family, banks, and law enforcement are valuable resources when things feel off.

    This story is a reminder that while technology connects us, it also opens doors for exploitation. Even in the most peaceful towns, the threat is real.

     
  • Geebo 9:00 am on November 15, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Wyoming   

    Missing teen scam hijacks social media 

    By Greg Collier

    Nothing gets shared on social media faster than the report of a missing child. Posts like that elicit such a visceral reaction in us that we’ll share the post without verifying it. This is precisely what scammers are hoping for when they post phony reports of missing children on social media. As we tend to point out, scammers will use any type of tragedy, real or imagined, to fleece their victims.

    In Wyoming, it’s been reported that scammers are posting the picture of a teenage boy who allegedly went missing after not returning home from school. The name of the boy changes, but the pictures largely stay the same. These posts are being posted by several different people, with some of them claiming to be the boy’s mother. The scammers are said to have been making these posts in community and neighborhood groups, and pages dedicated to other missing children.

    So, you’re probably wondering what the scammers can possibly gain by creating a fictitious missing child. The missing child post is just an avenue to get the post shared as widely as possible. Once the original post is shared enough times, the scammers will change the post to whatever their latest scam is. In the Wyoming case, the posts were changed to posts for a banking scam.

    So, of course, we always want to help when a child has been reported missing, and we still can. But before you share that post, you might want to make sure it’s from a credible source. For example, if the post comes from a local news station, a police station, or an established organization like The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), it’s probably a legitimate post.

    You may also want to check the age of the post. If you share a post that is years old and the child has been found, repeated posts could make things more difficult not only for police but the child’s family as well.

    Lastly, you could be sharing a false post that is designed to hurt someone.

     
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