Don’t let your quest for love blind you to the realities of romance scams.
Online dating and social media have made it easier than ever to meet new people and find dates. Unfortunately, it has made scammers’ work simpler, too. Con artists create compelling backstories, and full-fledged identities, then trick you into falling for someone who doesn’t even exist. This form of deception is known as “catfishing.” Sometimes a catfisher is simply a lonely person hiding behind a fake persona. But often, it is the first step in a phishing scheme to steal personal information, or a romance scam to trick you out of money. In some cases, victims have been tricked into moving illegal money from other scams (“money mule”), which is potentially a crime.
Tips to Spot This Scam:
Too hot to be true. Scammers offer up good-looking photos and tales of financial success. Be honest with yourself about who would be genuinely interested. If they seem “too perfect,” your alarm bells should ring.
In a hurry to get off the site. Catfishers will try very quickly to get you to move to communicating through email, messenger, or phone.
Talk about trust. Catfishers will start manipulating you with talk about trust and how important it is. This will often be a first step to asking you for money.
Don’t want to meet. Be wary of someone who always has an excuse to postpone meeting because they say they are traveling, or live overseas, or are in the military.
Hard luck stories. Before moving on to asking you for money, the scammer may hint at financial troubles like heat being cut off, or a stolen car, or a sick relative, or they may share a sad story from their past (death of parents or spouse, etc.).
Protect Yourself From this Scam:
Never send money or personal information that can be used for identity theft to someone you’ve never met in person. Never give someone your credit card information to book a ticket to visit you. Cut off contact if someone starts asking you for information like credit card, bank, or government ID numbers.
Ask specific questions about details given in a profile. A scammer may stumble over remembering details or making a story fit.
Do your research. Many scammers steal photos from the web to use in their profiles. You can do a reverse image lookup using a website like tineye.com or images.google.com to see if the photos on a profile are stolen from somewhere else. You can also search online for a profile name, email, or phone number to see what adds up and what doesn’t.
To report a scam, go to BBB Scam Tracker.
