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Romance scamming: A global industry

Who is running online romance scams.... and who is falling for them?

Many of us will have noticed 'friend' or 'follow' requests on our social media from strangers with profiles which don鈥檛 quite ring true. They mainly use cloned pictures, often taken from accounts of those in the US military. Zoe Kleinman investigates the global industry of romance scamming, which can have tragic consequences. Zoe hears from Lisa Forte, a cyber security expert from Red Goat Security, Professor Alan Woodward from Surrey University, and she goes into the tragic story of Renee Holland, as investigated by Jack Nicas of the New York Times. With thanks to the New York Times for their material.

This is a repeat of a programme first broadcast on 26 August 2020

Producer: Sarah Treanor.

(Photo: Mobile phone display. Credit: Getty Images)

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18 minutes

Last on

Tue 15 Feb 2022 08:32GMT

Broadcast

  • Tue 15 Feb 2022 08:32GMT

Podcast