A bride scam is a form of

romance scam A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim's affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud ag ...

- a

confidence trick A scam, or a confidence trick, is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using a combination of the victim's credulity, naivety, compassion, vanity, confidence, irrespons ...

that aims to defraud potential

groom A bridegroom (often shortened to groom) is a man who is about to be married or who is newlywed. When marrying, the bridegroom's future spouse is usually referred to as the bride. A bridegroom is typically attended by a best man and Groomsman, ...

s with the offer of a foreign

bride A bride is a woman who is about to be married or who is a newlywed. When marrying, if the bride's future spouse is a man, he is usually referred to as the ''bridegroom'' or just ''groom''. In Western culture, a bride may be attended by a maid, ...

. The basis of the confidence trick is to seek men from the western world who would like to marry a foreign woman and pretend to be willing to marry them. The woman (scammer) asks the man to send money, for example, for the purposes of purchasing an

airline ticket An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a ''paper ticket'', whic ...

or a visa they have no intention of buying. The relationship ends after requested money has been wired and received, sometimes after multiple transfers have been made. This

phenomenon A phenomenon ( phenomena), sometimes spelled phaenomenon, is an observable Event (philosophy), event. The term came into its modern Philosophy, philosophical usage through Immanuel Kant, who contrasted it with the noumenon, which ''cannot'' be ...

increased in number with the rise of the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

with its

online dating Online dating, also known as internet dating, virtual dating, or mobile app dating, is a method used by people with a goal of searching for and interacting with potential romantic or sexual partners, via the internet. An online dating service ...

sites and

online chat Online chat is any direct text-, audio- or video-based (webcams), one-on-one or one-to-many ( group) chat (formally also known as synchronous conferencing), using tools such as instant messengers, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), talkers and possi ...

Law enforcement

The

U.S. State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs ...

often refers to bride scams as "Boris and Natasha" scams, when a lonely American man believes he has found a beautiful woman to marry except Natasha ends up being a Boris. Bride scams are a part of the rapidly growing criminal activity known as Cybercrime, which in 2007 and 2008 cost approximately US$8 billion worldwide.Interpol. 2011. ''Cybercrime''. URL:http://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/Cybercrime/Cybercrime . Date of Access: November 1, 2011. Currently laws are unable to properly deal with the various forms of

Cybercrime Cybercrime encompasses a wide range of criminal activities that are carried out using digital devices and/or Computer network, networks. It has been variously defined as "a crime committed on a computer network, especially the Internet"; Cyberc ...

that are facing contemporary law enforcement agencies. The

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, as well as Interpol are currently working to establish working relationships with other global organizations to help combat this recent trend. Most of the current legislation in the United States surrounding international marriage brokers (IMBs) or Mail-order brides began in 1990 and was superseded multiple times, most recently in the 2005

International Marriage Broker Regulation Act The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (Subtitle D of Title VIII (Sections 831–834) of United States Public Law 109–162), or IMBRA, codified at , is a United States federal statute that requires background checks for all marri ...

(IMBRA). This legislation was focused on protecting the women involved who are made vulnerable due to the multitude of circumstances surrounding their move to the United States. Furthermore, some parts of the current legislation in the U.S. may hurt the ability of men to protect themselves against fraud. IMBRA stipulates that, "IMBs may not disclose a recruit's personal information to a U.S. client until the recruit has reviewed any records retrieved and has returned a signed document in her primary language (no exceptions) consenting to the release of her information." The premise of this law may be to protect the women from domestic violence and exploitation and it probably does, the law does not provide inquiring men with enough protection. Currently, the only laws available to protect the rights of the men being targeted by bride scams are those concerning Cybercrime. The IMBRA did require the Attorney General to conduct a study on international marriage brokers, which sheds light on the women who use fraud to manipulate men with the promise of marriage before disappearing upon entry to the United States. There are laws concerning computer fraud and they can be "separated into two categories: 1) crimes facilitated by a computer and 2) crimes where a computer or network is the target." Bride scam refers to the first category, "crimes facilitated by a computer," and is punishable according to U.S. law. U.S code number 18 U.S.C. § 1030. refers to Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Computers, and explicitly states, "Whoever with intent to extort from any person any money or other thing of value..." is punishable by law.

Nations and organizations of interest

Russia is where many of the contemporary fraud experts claim the prospective brides come from, and many of the anti-scam sites look to combat this particular form of bride scam. Additionally, many IMBs offer opportunities to marry women from impoverished regions all over the world including Russians, Asians, and Ibero-Americans. With the lack of governmental involvement concerning bride scams, many unaffiliated websites have started to provide people with the "How to" when it comes to avoiding being scammed. Most of these sites include a list o
"known russian scammers by name (photo, email etc)"
as well as any photos which are known to have been used by scammers in the past. Some people have even turned to private investigators to help them determine whether or not the woman they are courting actually exist.Real story of fraudster and investigation https://scammers.ru/dating-scammers/146404.htm. Date of Access: Jule 17, 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bride Scam Confidence tricks Fraud Sham marriage Deception

Law enforcement

Nations and organizations of interest

See also

References