Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The 'romance scammers’ cashing in on lockdown loneliness
Even though Hong Kong’s job opportunities are relatively gender-equal, women there seem to feel pressure in their personal lives. As unmarried women of their late 20s or early 30s still tend to be seen as “leftover,” older women are even more desperate to find their partners. But in fact, in the age group older than 30, there are only two men for every three women in the city-state, which makes women even more eager to develop a love relationship. On top of the cultural pressure, many are working from home nowadays because of the coronavirus pandemic. Indeed, those who don’t have social engagement opportunities tend to rely on SNSs and online dating or matching sites. Since those online-matched couples have never met in person, such lonely women are quite vulnerable to online romance scams. After intense texting to be cyber lovers, catfishers then ask them to transfer money to meet them in person or help their financial problems. In fact, 50% more such victims were reported between January and September this year over last year. There may be even more victims who hadn’t reported their cases.
Read the article and learn about how vulnerable people could become when they are isolated from social engagements.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20201125-te-romance-scammers-exploiting-lockdown-loneliness
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