"Wedding Sherlock": Stadtgeflüster Interview on Marriage Fraud with Detective Patrick Kurtz – Part I

Dominik Irtenkauf learns from Detective Patrick Kurtz about the pitfalls and lies of marriage fraudsters.

"Not everything that shines and appears beautiful can be love. Sometimes appearances are deceiving. Fraudsters mingle among those seeking marriage. The Kurtz Detective Agency Mannheim investigates marriage fraudsters and also conducts surveillance in cases of infidelity. Patrick Kurtz explains the tricks that the scammers use."

How often does your detective agency receive cases involving marriage fraudsters?

Relatively rarely. On average, about once every three months. The inquiries rarely come from the partners themselves who suspect that they have fallen victim to a marriage fraudster. Usually, it is the family environment that initiates the requests. For example, a sister might say: “The man you are with doesn’t seem trustworthy; you should maybe have him checked out.” Or parents or friends might have similar concerns. It is rather rare that the affected parties themselves request such an investigation.

The affected parties probably have rose-colored glasses on, right?

Yes, that too. We investigate the case and can show the client that this and that in the alleged biography of this person is not true – so it is a proven fabrication – that the person has concealed. Nevertheless, we often experience that the injured party does not want to accept this. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, they still believe it is true love.

Are the victims usually wealthy people?

Generally, yes. But there are also internet scams. In such cases, people from different linguistic regions contact individuals in Germany via Facebook or Twitter. At first, a chat relationship begins, usually with a completely fake biography. A chat situation arises in which the person falls in love – or rather, what does “fall in love” mean here? The person to be deceived develops feelings for the scammer. They are drawn into a fictional relationship with a non-existent person – and due to the emotional attachment, they cannot get out of it.

Does it also involve marriage?

I don’t know if it has much to do with marriage. These are people who spend all day on a PC or another device, searching for profiles of older women who appear wealthy, and contact them. For the scammers, it probably doesn’t matter which linguistic region the women come from. If the potential victims appear suitable, they are contacted.

Do you have a concrete example?

Yes. A woman who only spoke Spanish and a little German was contacted in English. She mostly needed Google Translate to understand the communication. She was around 70 years old. Eventually, her sister convinced her that an expert should look at the chat and the virtual lover to see if it was serious. I was then able to see within five minutes that it was a fake profile, ultimately needing only Google image search.

What did the fake lover want?

He wanted to obtain money for a plane ticket to visit her. That would have meant that she would send him the money and ultimately wait at the airport in vain, as he would, of course, never arrive. This method is a frequently used tactic: The scammer looks for a woman who lives somewhat further away than the fake persona, so that travel costs for a visit can be mentioned under this pretext.

The internet connection becomes “real life.” The game with false identities is surely facilitated by the internet.

That’s true. Scams like marriage fraud show different approaches in the virtual and the analog world. Online, it is much easier to remain anonymous for long periods with a fake identity without being discovered. If you pretend to be someone else, this is often not verifiable for the other person. When personal meetings occur in real life, the potential victim has at least already seen a face that is hard to hide behind someone else’s photo. The anonymity is thus not present.

What does that mean specifically?

In the case of online fraud, there will never be a real marriage because the true identity is not revealed. For marriage fraudsters who appear physically, it is possible that they assume fake identities. There may even be birth certificates that could be shown at the registry office, so a marriage under a false identity could actually take place. But most perpetrators do not act that professionally. Many appear under their real names – jumping from woman to woman. In cases where we have real identity data, it is relatively easy for us to track: How often was the person married, how are the other partners doing today?

"In one case, a series of men died for one woman ..."

Are they always men?

No. We even had a classic crime-like case where a suspicious woman had a series of husbands die shortly after marriage, and the woman possessed enormous wealth. She kept marrying repeatedly, never satisfied. This is also common with scammers in other areas – once successful, they cannot stop; they know no limits.

There is surely also an emotional component. Once successful, they are curious whether they can “conquer” again.

That is partly a matter of “talent.” Some people have the gift to captivate others, to deceive them. People simply love them. There are cases in which the victims find out they were deceived by these charismatic people and still cannot completely let go of the relationship.

What motives might these deceived individuals have?

If you put yourself in their situation and ask: How would I feel afterward? How would I react? I would be furious if a woman ripped me off like that. In our clients’ cases – the victims of these marriage fraudsters – we have often seen that they did not feel the anger one might expect. They a) did not want to accept it and were b) deeply disappointed rather than truly angry. Denial occurs in almost all cases. Perhaps the humiliation is so great that people cannot accept what has happened to them.

Perhaps it is also a generational question. You mentioned a 70-year-old victim. In a younger generation, marriage is not as popular, and fraud has less chance.

That is possible. Today, applying this purely physical form of marriage fraud – meeting women or men somewhere and capturing them in a very short time – is rather old-fashioned. Time is always an important factor for marriage fraudsters. If they do not reach their goal quickly, the effort may no longer be worthwhile.

So things have changed?

Today, since people marry later – sometimes after several years together, even having a child without marriage – there is a big difference compared to 20 or 30 years ago. A complicating factor for fraudsters using the analog method. On the one hand, social media and internet anonymity provide considerable ease for marriage fraudsters. But living together in a relationship with the intent to deceive is socially much more difficult today."

Part II – Infidelity Investigations by Private Detectives

Part II of the interview between Dominik Irtenkauf and private detective Patrick Kurtz – mainly about adultery and cheating – can be found here.

Note

The highlights (bold text) and links do not originate from the original article but were added by Kurtz Detective Agency Mannheim and Rhein-Neckar.

Source: Stadtgeflüster Verlag GmbH, "Original Stadtgeflüster Interview", 5/2018, 13th yr.

 

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