Victims of dating fraud were scammed out of a total of 3,744,300 euros last year, almost double the 1,651,769 euros stolen from dating fraud victims two years ago, NU.nl reports based on figures from the Fraud Help Desk.
Last year, the Fraud Help Desk received 639 reports of dating fraud, compared to 412 in 2018. A total of 259 people fell victim to scams by someone pretending to date them in 2019. Victims were therefore scammed out of 14,457 euros on average.
Dating platforms Tinder, Happn, 50plusmatch, Parship, and Paiq are in violation of Dutch privacy law, according to consumers association Consumentenbond. They place tracking cookies without users' permission and their privacy statements are intentionally vague about who they share information with, according to the association.
A 51-year-old woman from Rotterdam was sentenced to 15 months in prison, five of which conditionally suspended, by the court in The Hague on Tuesday. She was found guilty of fraud. She stole 1.1 million euros from her employer and transferred this full amount to the foreign bank account of her online love interest, NU.nl reports.
The Right Link BV, a company behind 17 dating sites, agreed to refund customers who were misled by fake profiles on its sites, the Dutch authority on consumers and markets ACM announced on Tuesday. According to ACM, the company set 9 million euros aside for these refunds.
Online dating is increasingly common in the Netherlands. Nearly half of Dutch between the ages of 18 and 34 are active on dating sites or apps like Tinder, Happn and Grindr. Just over half of all Dutch think that getting a date online is just as normal as using more traditional methods, according to a survey among 1,015 Dutch people by research agency Ipsos, and researched by Rutgers and the Volkskrant.
This week the Netherlands authority on consumers and markets ACM raided a number of companies that run dating sites. They are suspected of getting money out of customers by misleading them with fake profiles. According to the ACM, it is often vulnerable people that fall victim to this practice, NU.nl reports.
According to the ACM, visitors to the sites receive messages from fake profiles, which are sent by employees of the companies. The visitors then have to pay to respond to messages from these fake profiles.
Dutch an Alexander Pieter Cirk was hospitalized due to physical exhaustion earlier this week after he spent 10 days on an airport in China waiting for a girl he met online
The 31 year old transvestite who was strangled by his 61 year old on-again-off-again boyfriend in Groningen on Saturday, has died in hospital.
