Love scammers swindle 900K from Geneva residents

Monday, 6 November 2023 05:48

According to the police, CHF 900,000 have already been stolen from Geneva residents since the beginning of the year by so-called love scammers.

The scam consists of exchanging online messages with a victim, promising romantic love and a meeting that never comes, in order to extract large sums of money from them.

Between 2020 and 2022, the Geneva police counted an average of 35 love scams a year.

This figure has steadily increased in recent years.

Most of the time, the criminals operate from abroad, notably the Ivory Coast.

The victims are generally women aged 50 and over.

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