Love may be blind, but you shouldn't be when it comes to crime!
Romance scams or online dating scams are a type of theft wherein a person gets tricked into believing they're in a romantic relationship with someone they met online. However, the person on the other side of the screen is a cybercriminal using a fake identity to trick the other person into giving them their trust to ask or blackmail them for money, per Norton's article.
We have gathered a handful of info for you can keep in mind to avoid becoming a victim of a romance scam.
How Romance Scams work
According to the International Criminal Police Organization's (INTERPOL) post on the matter, a romance scam starts when a scammer establishes an artificial romance with someone through a dating app like Tinder or Bumbler. The victim then gets investment tips from the scammer, who encourages the victim to join a scheme that seems legitimate.
The scammer can also ask the victim for money at this point. Usually, their modus operandi consists of asking for money due to a personal emergency such as an ill family member, a failed business, or a mugging, per Scamwatch. The scammer can also tell the victim that they want to meet their victim in person but would need money from them to do so.
Regardless of their methods, once the victim caves into the scammer's pleas for help or invests a significant amount of money in the scammer's investment scheme, all contact between the victim and the scammer suddenly stops. Meanwhile, victims who joined the scammer's investment scheme would find out they are locked out of their accounts.
Spotting the Scammers
One of the few dead giveaways that someone is a romance scammer is that they're located somewhere far away. Common backgrounds scammers give their victims are that they work on an oil rig or that they're in the military who may be deployed overseas. Romance scammers can also say they're a doctor in an international organization or that they're working on a construction project outside the U.S.
Another dead giveaway is that their profile seems too good to be true. A dating profile of a scammer may not have any details listed or that their hobbies and interest suspiciously match yours.
Romance Scammers also tend to move the artificial relationship they made with their victim fast, sometimes too fast for their victim. Norton says romance scammers do this so their victims won't catch on to their tactics.
A telltale sign that someone is a romance scammer is if they profess their love to you surprisingly quickly to the point that the scammer wants you to marry them. Romance scammers also tend to make promises to see you soon or when they insist to move the conversation somewhere private, like through email.
If the messages they sent seem like they're copy-and-pasted, don't make any sense, have terrible grammar or spelling, or they come up with different excuses when asked to video chat, then the person on the other side of the screen is most likely a romance scammer.
Scammers also ask their victims for money despite you not meeting them at all. They also have specific instructions on how to send money to them, such as via wire transfer, preloaded gift cards, or a newly established bank account in your name. These transactions are usually hard to reverse while protecting the scammer's identity.
Preventing The Scam
If you suspect Mr. or Ms. Right is a romance scammer, stop communicating with them immediately, per the Federal Trade Commission's article on the matter.
Talking to family members and friends about the scammer is also a good idea, as their concern could mean that your new love interest is a scammer.
You can also do your own snooping by searching the scammer up along with his story. He may not be the only one claiming to work on an oil rig.
Sending compromising photos of yourself is not a good idea as the romance scammer may use those photos against you in a blackmail attempt.
Reporting the Scam
The FTC recommends people who suspect they're being scammed or a victim of a romance scam to visit its website or the FBI to file a complaint.
Contacting your bank about a transaction involving a scammer immediately can also help authorities pinpoint the scammer and hopefully, recover the money you sent them.
Reporting the scammer on a dating site is also a good idea to prevent them from scamming others on that platform.
Related Article : How to Spot and Avoid Instagram Scams
