Floridians targeted for Love Scams

[Baitball Blogger]

At the behest of her online "boyfriend," an Orlando-area woman wired thousands of dollars halfway around the world last year to help the man's supposed children. Her Internet beau told her he couldn't do it because he was stuck on an oil rig in the North Atlantic.

She had already wired more than $5,300 and was in the process of sending more when the money-transfer company flagged the transactions as a suspected "love fraud" and intervened. Authorities are now investigating, but there is little evidence to track and no suspects.

As is often the case with other types of fraud, Florida ranks at or near the top in romance-related scams, according to MoneyGram International, the company that provided details of the Orlando-area cas

And nearly 40 percent of all Florida cases each year occur in January and February alone, MoneyGram said, as fraudsters try to pry money from victims on the pretense of using it to pay for a Valentine's Day visit.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-florida-romance-scams-valentines-day-20130212,0,1529202.story