One moment, you believe that Jon Bon Jovi might be your boyfriend, and the next minute, you're sending him thousands of dollars only to find out it's all a scam.Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller sets out to uncover the truth behind romance scammers in , a documentary special coming to National Geographic, Hulu, and Disney+.Mariana van Zeller goes undercover in Super Scam Me Can you scam the scammer? Close Americans are lonely, and it's becoming a problem.
Romance scams are sweeping the nation, and scammers are ready to exploit the vulnerable.In an interview with How-To Geek, van Zeller explained why romance scams are among the fastest-growing financial crimes in the nation.They also happen to be the most devastating.
"One of the main reasons these scams are proliferating and have really exploded in the last few years is because of the loneliness epidemic," van Zeller told How-To Geek."These scammers are very good at exploiting that.And then you combine that with tech, with the advent of AI, and we have what is sort of the perfect storm for these scams to continue and get worse and worse and worse." Related Tom Hiddleston’s new Pompeii documentary uncovers a surprising story of survival The Marvel star travels back to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in new series.
Posts By Dan Girolamo Why would a person send money to someone they've never met? That's what van Zeller wanted to find out.In , van Zeller deliberately puts herself in a position to be scammed.Van Zeller creates an online profile with a new name and appearance, wig and all, to attract scammers.
Unsurprisingly, the scammers take the bait and contact van Zeller through her fake profile.Some of the connections immediately raised red flags, including one with someone claiming to be George Clooney.Through these eye-opening interactions, van Zeller gains a better understanding of how someone could fall victim to a romance scam.
Mariana van Zeller: Every single one of us can become a victim of a scam, and the best way to show that was by sort of placing myself at the center of these scams and sort of going on the craziest, wildest journalistic adventure of my life.Getting help from an unlikely source Van Zeller calls in a hacker To beat a hacker, you need to think and act like one.Enter Arman The Cyber, a brilliant computer expert who committed hacking crimes of the highest level as a teenager.
After a stint in jail, Arman turned his life around and now uses his hacking skills to fight scammers."I think it's really on us as security people in general to look at everything and report everything that we can as fast as possible, using these tools to help us rather than hurt other people first," Arman said."So that's kind of our goal." With Arman on her side, van Zeller is able to help Leslie Pickett end her alleged romance with someone pretending to be Bon Jovi.
Pickett had been sending thousands of dollars to this fake person before Arman pinpointed the scammer's location in Africa.Pickett is one of many people whose lives have been devastated by romance scams.Van Zeller even confronts her scammer by the end of the documentary.
How do we prevent these scams from happening? Van Zeller wants more accountability from the government and less blame on the individual."One of the biggest frustrations for me is that the onus for sort of preventing these scams from happening is falling way too much on individuals, and that shouldn't be the case," van Zeller said."We have a government that is absolutely not protecting Americans right now from these scams.
And I would want the sort of accountability to fall more on our governments and our big institutions, and less on individual citizens." premieres on October 17 at 9 p.m.EDT on National Geographic and streams the same day on Hulu and Disney+.Hulu Subscription with ads Yes, $10/month Live TV Yes, various plans available Visit Hulu Expand Collapse
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