Dear reader,
Romance scams are one of the most common cyber crimes in Canada, with victims being defrauded out of tens of millions of dollars each year. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre recently reported an uptick in a particularly pernicious form, where a fraudster will first develop a relationship with their victim and then convince them to buy into a get-rich-quick scheme. These scammers are experts at gaslighting. And the longer the relationship continues, the less likely the victim is to recognize what’s really going on.
That’s precisely what happened to the women in Jane Gerster’s 2022 Toronto Life story about Jason Porter—the long-time con artist at the centre of RomCon: Who the F**k is Jason Porter, a new two-part documentary premiering on Prime Video next week.
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