Where do you get your scam details from?

This is a question we’re asked quite a lot by the media. The answer is pretty simple. We create accounts specifically for the purpose, then make their details available in the places scammers go to looking for lists of email addresses and wait for the scam emails to roll in. Sometimes I see that a scammer hasn’t hidden all the other addresses he’s sent the scam to, and the same names turn up time and time again. Romance scams are a little different as we have to create profiles on sites we see mentioned a lot by the people who come to us for help. Same thing though, make your presence known and wait for the scammers to start contacting you. We never initiate contact, simply wait for them to say hello and go from there. There is more of an art to the dating site profiles as you have to be careful you’re not attracting genuine people. We only want the scammers.