The Strange Link Between Fake Banks and Romance Scams
Author: James Greening
Creating a fake website is easier and cheaper than ever. There is no longer any need to design a website as templates are readily available. Additionally, there is no identity verification required to set up a website using the services of domain registrars, hosting providers and other internet companies. Therefore, anyone can now cheaply set up a website in just a few hours. While this accessibility is a gift for business-owners, it also means that scammers can create convincing websites with little effort.
Websites for Banks that Don’t Exist
We stumbled upon this scam when several users contacted us requesting to check the websites of ‘banks’ that someone online told them to send money to. We noticed that many of the websites looked identical and smelled an obvious scam. The websites were clones of each other with the only difference being the name of the supposed bank. It became clear that the websites are simply duplicates of each other. The websites shared with us all contained the following phrase: With over a million customer, we have stood the test of time and our customers base speaks the volume about us.
Upon analysis, we discovered that there are at least 222 duplicated websites of banks, all of which are likely to be scams. The list of sites is appended at the end of the article.
Take a look at the screenshots below of three different websites which are all identical:
The websites themselves contain no real company or contact information, making it apparent that they are not legitimate banks. Strangely, there are almost no reviews posted online for these sites either. We found two vague reviews on ScamAdviser calling two of the websites scams, but the users have not provided additional information about what kind of scams these websites are used for.
Fake Bank Websites and Romance Scams
Further research into the fake bank websites led to the page ‘Romance Scam/Advance Fee Fraud/Phishing: DEREK PRINCE’ posted on a forum named Scam Police Group. This page talks about a Romance scammer going by the name ‘Derek Prince’. It also contains the screenshot of a website named Metropolis Capital Bank (metcapb.com) which is no longer active but looks exactly like the fake bank sites that we discovered.
The forum post provides the following information regarding the involvement of Metropolis Capital Bank in a convoluted catfishing scam involving a fake bank, a fake courier company and a fake construction company:
The informant gave us about 6 lines of information that is almost nothing, so we have had to build the story and investigate what might be going on. We have two indications about what scam it could be, a fake bank to discuss money transfers [www.metcapb.com], and a fake parcel delivery company to extract more money from the victim [www.zenithserviceslimited.com]
The third website [www.jabergconstructions.com] arrived out of what the informant mentioned about the stolen pictures, and the fourth site we uncovered ourselves. Based on the above we had to do some assuming and also some detective work. We assembled a story.
The informant had an involvement with the profile of a Derek Prince. The scammer in some way wanted $9850. The informant was to make a deposit to a bank the scammer provided, https://www.metcapb.com/index.php
From the above information, we can gather that the goal of the romance scammer was to convince the victim to deposit $9,850 into a fake bank website. Scammers use fake social media profiles and edited images to persuade victims that they are real and wealthy people who need money for an emergency which they will promptly pay back. Of course, the scammers never have any intention of returning the money. In fact, their demands only increase when they realise that the victim has fallen into their trap. This kind of scam is called an Advance Fee Scam and is one of the oldest and most common scams on the internet.
Therefore, if someone you are talking to online asks you to deposit money into an online banking website, always be suspicious and do your due diligence as it is a scam in all likelihood.
This article has been written by a scam fighter volunteer. If you believe the article above contains inaccuracies or is missing relevant information, please contact ScamAdviser.com using this form.
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