Romance scam: It all starts with an innocent friendship request on social media

The police have disrupted yet another scheme involving romance fraud in the regions of Razgrad, Shumen, and Haskovo. Twelve men and women were involved in the criminal activity, seven of whom have been detained. Nearly half a million leva (BGN) in cash and gold jewelry have been seized. What is new in this case is that the Bulgarian women were posing as Macedonians. In 90% of the cases, their victims were trusting men from Turkey.

• Money and jewelry worth half a million BGN seized during police operation targetting romance scams

It all started with innocent friendship requests on social media. These were sent by women from Bulgaria who pretended to be Macedonians in order to cover their tracks. After the initial declarations of love and promises of cohabitation or marriage, they begin asking for money from foreigners.

The romance scam has been operating for over 10 years in Yasenovets. This time, two people from the village have been detained. Their houses do not have numbers, but they are equipped with cameras that monitor for strangers.

"One of them is a forester. The police came, everything is here, but what did they do, I don't have a clue."

In Razgrad, two apartments were searched, one of which is located just metres away from the Prosecutor's Office. Police also raided homes in Isperih and Svilengrad. During the special operation, over one kilogramme of gold jewelry, 335,000 BGN in various currencies, mobile phones, SIM cards from Bulgarian, North Macedonian, and Turkish operators, laptops, documents for money transfers, and bank cards were found.

The leaders of the group used "financial mules" to manage the money flows. For this type of fraud, the legislation provides for one to six years in prison.