Fraud Awareness Week: Romance Scams

Romance scams continue being lucrative for scammers worldwide. The reported losses in 2023 from romance scams were $1.1 billion dollars in the United States alone. The scammer playbook has stayed the same for decades. Below are a few tips to help keep you safe from romantic scammers:

1. Scammers will contact a potential victim through a dating app.
2. The scammer will provide a potential victim with pictures of himself or herself, and they will be extremely attractive.  These pictures are probably not real.
3. Scammers often play on your sympathy; for example, telling you they are a widower and/or have a young child.
4. Scammers might state they are local and then when you discuss meeting, they will most likely say they are working overseas or in the military.   Ask them to tell you their favorite local restaurant or a fact that only someone from your local area would know to test their validity.
5. Scammers will immediately ask for your phone number and try to move the conversation to another app like WhatsApp, GoogleHangouts, Line, or WeChat.
6. Scammers will profess his/her love to the victim within just a few days.
7. Scammers will continue the conversation trying to establish trust and build a relationship with the victim.
8. Scammers will consistently tell the victim how much they love them.
9. Scammers will have some type of emergency which will cause the scammer to ask the victim to send money for medical or legal costs.  These money requests could be unusual as in the form of gift cards or cryptocurrency.
10. Scammers will tell the victim they want to visit them.
11. Scammers will avoid video chat, saying the technology where they are at is not working.
12. Scammers will then request money from the victim for travel expenses.
13. Once the victim gives the scammer money, the scammer will continue inventing reasons for the victim to send them money while all along professing their love for the victim and telling them they can’t wait to see them.

If you are involved in a situation like this, cease all contact immediately. The scammers will continue asking for money and will never travel to come see you. Please report any fraudulent activity to www.ic3.gov or www.reportfraud.ftc.gov and be sure to pass this information along so more people know about these types of scams. 

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