Last year a record number of Norwegian men and women were defrauded on the internet.
– The victims get older, and now we also see that men of a more mature age are tricked, Anne Dybos in ØKOKRIM says to VG. She has worked on cases connected to the so-called Nigerian scams over the past 20 years.
Figures show that 209 Norwegians sent 280 million from its accounts to the defrauders in the last year. The oldest victim is a man of 92 years of age. The amount of money has increased by over 33 percent from the previous year, when 173 Norwegians sent 210 million to what they thought were their internet girlfriends.
Last year, two Norwegians alone were defrauded of 19 million NOK each. Dybos says that most victims are tricked into paying between 2 and 3 million.
Norwegian authorities are most concerned about the growing trend where victims of dating scams also are tricked into committing criminal acts in the form of money laundering by placing their bank account at the scammers’ disposal.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
