'Young Romanian Woman' Car Accident Hoax Spreads on Facebook

A traffic scam that defrauds drivers in the real world may now be seeking hit-and-run victims in a spinoff scam in the virtual world, according to Hoax Slayer.

A Facebook message calling attention to a Romanian woman who deliberately causes a car accident could be aimed at bringing fraud from the streets to the internet, according to Hoax Slayer. So far, users who click the Facebook warning aren`t redirected to malicious URLs, but such dangerous links could be added any time.

“PEOPLE BEWARE!!,” the message reads. “IVE PUT IT IN CAPS TO MAKE YOU ALL AWARE. LATEST SCAM YOUNG ROMANIAN WOMAN DRIVING ROUND IN CAR WITH FOREIGN PLATES THATS NOT RECOGNISED BY OUR POLICE DATABASES. SHE CRASHES INTO YOU THEN MINUTES LATER HER TWO MALE FRIENDS TURN UP WITH A LOW LOADER TO TAKE YOUR CAR. SHE BEGS AND PLEADS NOT TO RING THE POLICE AND THEY TRY TO INTIMIDATE YOU INTO RELEASING YOUR CAR.”

The scammer says the incident happened to him a month ago and that he already lost $4,000 dollars because of it. He especially warns “ladies” and asks users to “repost so everyone is aware.”

“It seems likely that the author of the message is attempting to describe some manner of car insurance scam,” Hoax Slayer writes. “Scams involving deliberate car accidents do occur and are often perpetrated by criminal gangs working together.”

In the last couple of years, these incidents have proven to be more than Romanian urban legends, especially in Bucharest. Perpetrators deliberately cause an accident and then blackmail the driver, pretending they are injured or claiming damage to the vehicle.