From Dating To Defrauding: Online Romance Scams Surge As Criminals Cash In On Lonely Hearts

Your new beau keeps making plans to see you but then doesn’t show up. Usually, he claims something terrible has happened—his mother died, for instance—which might lead him to ask you for money. Of course, before the “big ask,” scammers will make small requests to gauge whether you’re likely to be susceptible to the con when an “emergency” inevitably crops up.

Instead, some scammers use them to carry out romance scams. Often times, scammers convince victims to leave the dating site and use personal email or instant messaging to continue communication. When you are getting to know someone, you’ll naturally want to move beyond the dating site and use other forms of communication. Be very cautious when someone asks for your phone number or email address.

The scammer’s agenda was always to live off the victim and take as much as possible. “Once the target’s money and other resources are gone, the relationship is usually over,” she says. The FTC and its law enforcement partners announced actions against several income scams that conned people out of hundreds of millions of dollars by falsely telling them they could make a lot of money.

Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service. By operating in the United States, transnational criminal organizations pose significant multi-jurisdictional challenges to U.S. law enforcement. To combat this, HSI and its partner agencies have worked with the Department of Justice to produce a coordinated enforcement and prosecution effort. This effort involves law enforcement working jointly with prosecutors, our foreign law enforcement partners and the financial industry. This collaboration has led to a more cooperative law enforcement effort that will eventually lead to the disruption and dismantlement of the TCOs that victimize our senior citizens.

Con artists are using dating apps to prey on lonely people, and older ones are a growing target. Never send money to someone you’ve never met in person. You should immediately cut off contact if someone starts asking you for personal information like a credit card, bank, or government ID number. Scammers impersonating a member of the U.S. military often claim that there is some reason the military can’t provide needed funds—and thus the victim needs to help. They often claim to be deployed overseas and cannot meet in person, and they use stolen photos of military members to create fake profiles. They’ll say they need money for a plane ticket and other expenses to travel back to the United States.

Use Google to run a reverse-image search of their profile picture and photos to see if their images show up somewhere else with different information. Cross-check online profiles with a quick search of their name to see what pops up. The request they make usually corresponds to the fake identity they’ve created. For example, if they’re posing as a military service member, they might ask for extra cash to supplement military medical insurance. Romance scammers can’t usually meet you in person because they aren’t who they claim to be.

If you happen to have his/her phone number, verify his/her real identity with it. Fraudsters leverage these relationships to manipulate and steal from victims—and break their hearts. Often times, the first sign of an online dating scam shows up when a romance scammer expresses strong emotions in a relatively short period of time.

A victim may even get a call from an accomplice who claims to be a your or doctor to lend credibility to the tale. The F.B.I. has sounded the alarm about romance scams. In 2021, the bureau said, Americans of all age groups coughed up more than a billion dollars to con artists, up from more than $362 million in 2018. The median loss from a romance scam for people 70 and older in 2021 was $9,000, according erisdating com to the F.T.C., compared with $2,400 across all age groups. Federal prosecutors said she used some of the money to pay for a condominium in Florida, rooms at the Ritz Carlton, gold bars, a Corvette and luxury watches and clothing. Con artists are using dating sites to prey on lonely people, particularly older ones, in a pattern that accelerated during the isolation of the pandemic, federal data show.

How can I avoid romance scams?

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 exist. This form of deception is known as “catfishing.” Sometimes a catfisher is simply a lonely person hiding behind a fake persona.

Protect Yourself from Romance Scams this Valentine’s Season!

The criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do and will seem genuine, caring, and believable. Con artists are present on most dating and social media sites. After connecting with someone through a fake profile, the scammer will strike up a conversation and start building a relationship by regularly chatting with them. Once they start to trust the romance scammer and believe they have a truthful relationship, the cybercriminal will make up a story, ask them for money, and vanish. If you are concerned that you or a loved one has fallen victim to an online dating scam, you should report your experience to whichever online dating or social media site you were on.

Now, Ms. Hutchinson is trying to pull her life back together. — one of the few assets they have left — and she is working with the local police in Florida to try to track down her scammer. “I want to teach you to invest in cryptocurrency when you are free, bring some changes to your life and bring an extra income to your life,” he texted her, according to a screenshot of the exchange.

How to Avoid a Romance Scam When Using Online Dating Sites

She brings first-hand experience in studying romance scams, and also experience in vetting dating sites for legitimacy. As real as someone seem online, there is always a chance that they could be a scammer. When first talking to someone new online, do not give out too much personal information and always keep an eye out for anything suspicious. If you come across a scammer online, do what you can to discredit them and protect yourself from falling for their tricks.

– Use a Background Search Service

In 2017, more than 15,000 people filed complaints with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center alleging they were victims of confidence/romance fraud and reporting losses of more than $211 million. In 2018, the number of victims filing these complaints increased to more than 18,000, with more than $362 million in losses—an increase of more than 70 percent over the previous year. Many are operating out of foreign countries, despite profiles saying they live nearby. Their photographs are also likely of someone else, and that would be tough to explain in person. Where do the scammers get photos of themselves in these exotic locations and with these costly products?

IC3 reports submitted prior to 2019 are not included in Sentinel, so these reports were excluded to ensure greater consistency in reporting trends over time. Protect yourself and older loved ones by raising awareness. Although this can be an uncomfortable topic, make sure you, your family and your friends are familiar with romance scams. The more you know about these scams, the better prepared you are to prevent being a victim.