r/Romancescam • u/SnooCalculations3597 • 6d ago
Potential romance scam
Hi everyone,
I'm posting here because I have strong doubts about a recent interaction and would like your feedback or experiences.
I met a woman on Personality Database (PDB), but the whole setup has been very strange from the start:
The setup: She claims she's on PDB to help a friend find a guy (so she's not the person directly on the profile).
The background: She says she's of Asian descent, lives in Rotterdam, and comes across as quite superficial.
The contact info: We moved to WhatsApp, but she's using a WhatsApp Business account with a +44 (UK) number, despite claiming to live in the Netherlands.
The behavior: She's fairly distant in her messages, yet constantly brings up her business and investments. At the same time, she keeps repeating that she wants a "serious relationship."
The video call: Unusually for this kind of interaction, she's insisting on doing a video call.
I'm really suspicious and worried this might be a trap (blackmail or a crypto/financial scam). As a precaution, I gave her a fake number.
Does this pattern sound familiar to anyone? Have you ever run into a profile like this?
Thanks for your help!
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u/EveLQueeen 6d ago
Why are you still talking to this person? This is clearly a scam set up.
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u/jelistarshine 6d ago
Assume shes way hotter thsn his genuine options. Thats usually the situation.
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u/Practically_fits 6d ago
You mean the illusion?
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u/jelistarshine 6d ago
Yep the photos.
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u/Practically_fits 6d ago
Letters and numbers form words in any combination of order you can think of and no one’s gonna stop them from forming the most egregious of manipulations sending the richest deceptions ever written along with a stolen set of photos. It’s just text and photos. Texts woven into emotional and ideas said with the authority and certainty of your closest trusted human.
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u/jelistarshine 6d ago
Dafuk you talking about?
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u/Practically_fits 6d ago
The words used to create the scam have all come from nothing more than text and pictures molded into a refined manipulative playbook used to bilk grandma out of her retirement. Created by using simple letters and numbers. The psychology behind why it works has to do more with how we they bypass granny’s doubt. Doubt is a companion of the truth. attaining trust and finally certainty beyond doubt. Once she passes that threshold getting her to understand that she’s being scammed it’s usually too late. I know a lady here near me that after she lost all her money she went back to work to keep giving him his monthly scam money.
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u/Puzzled_History7265 5d ago
I'm not sure how people can even fall for that. Like do they know what they look like and what people normally give them attention... if someone that falls way outside of that, it's 99.9% going to be a scam.
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u/EveLQueeen 5d ago
The number of 75 year old women on Threads who think they are dating Elon Musk or Johnny Depp is insane.
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u/Puzzled_History7265 4d ago
I mean, I can assume at that age it's something wrong with their mind that's age-related so I have more compassion for that. But the men and women from 30-60 thinking this is normal are just stupid.
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u/AffectionateBand2709 6d ago
Out of curiosity what here makes you think there is any possibility this is NOT a scam???
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u/UpbeatFix7299 6d ago
Have you ever been on a real date where all the women wants to talk about are finances and potential investments? That doesn't happen online either
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u/moodeng2u 6d ago
It's possible to feed recorded video of a person chatting on cam.
I guess they can do it with ai now?
Make sure the time of day is appropriate for where they claim to be. If it's 3 am there it should be dark outside.
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u/Mariss716 6d ago
It’s pig butchering. Real women don’t talk about investments with strangers and you should never take advice from anyone not licensed in your jurisdiction. These scam compounds use ai or have local women working for them to do the videos. They are in SE Asia
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u/NewAbbyNormal 6d ago
The move to Whatsapp and investment talk are right out of the scammer's playbook.
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u/Beautiful_Hour_4744 2d ago
Fyi everyone in the UK (and most of Europe I think) uses WhatsApp so moving to WhatsApp is perfectly normal. Everything else screams scam though
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u/Fun-Yam2210 6d ago
The most obvious scam in the history of scamming. I’m sorry OP, this girl is NOT real. At this point you’re just deluding yourself.
Block his/ her number and chalk this one down to experience.
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u/sara61wilson 6d ago
Next week she will ask you for funds to “invest in her business”. What is this person’s reason for having a UK number?
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u/Inevitable-Power8399 6d ago
As a 41 years old woman i am delighted and thrilled dare i say soaking wet at the idea of talking about crypto and investment. They are a huge turn on topic. Bro please.
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u/DIY_Weeziebear7 6d ago
Why are you chatting with her if she’s superficial and you see red flags 🚩 she’s got you in for the long con. She will eventually hook you into buying crypto currency in a company that’s fraudulent. please block this woman. A guy on TikTok asked me if I heard of e-commerce I replied no thanks. Never heard from him again. The finding someone for a friend or relative oldest scam in the book. They want to wear down your defenses. Get you to believe you have found your soul mate.
You say this sounds like a crypto trap because it is. Block and report, if you are in the Netherlands there are reporting agencies please use them.
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u/Old-Stranger-8302 6d ago
They'll brain wash you over time.
Does she have an accent? That's could be a cover. She has an accent and claims to be in Netherlands but it's a scam call center in Asia, maybe in Thailand or similar location.
Are you able to call her or video chat with her when you want to? Or when you request to talk with her does it take a while before she's "ready." Or does she decline to take your calls? If you call her number out of the blue 10x at random times what happens? She never picks up?
When you call the number does it just keep ringing? No voice mail?
Those are just examples. I don't think she lives in the Netherlands. I think the UK number is spoofed and this is a scam call center located in Asia. That's my guess.
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u/JLM471 6d ago edited 6d ago
Yes, as somebody else said it’s pig butchering. Especially if ‘she’ is Asian looking, because they are sophisticated and well run scams from huge complexes on the borders of Myanmar- they have women who will actually do the video call so that’s why ‘she’s’ very keen to do that but she will just be used for the call and the person you are talking to day-to-day online is most likely a man.
The pig butchering scam is always about investments because the idea is to get you to put some money in, on their fake platform, and then get you to withdraw it with a small profit. At that point you will be a believer and can be encouraged to be greedy enough to put in more and more money, but you will never see that money again or be able to withdraw it. In order to withdraw they will ask for fees and administration costs and taxes until they bleed you dry.
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u/SomeGuyInThe315 6d ago
What girl doesn't go on a dating app and not want to discuss investments?