Romance scams rake in big bucks for fraudsters
40% of romance scam victims said the relationship started on social media
(InvestigateTV) — Romance scams cost Americans $1.14 billion in 2023, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Melanie McGovern with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said it’s important to spot the red flags of a romance scammer.
According to the BBB, fraudsters create fake profiles on online dating sites using stolen photos and texts from real accounts.
“In direct messages, people are getting messages from people,” McGovern shared. “They’re getting friend requests they don’t know who the person is, so they’re trying to get you while you’re not thinking about it and drumming up a friendship with you, maybe they’re commenting on your posts and they’re liking your posts, and then they start working you through the messages.”
McGovern said the romance scammer will then make their move, trying to get serious very quickly by convincing the person that they’re in love.
Then, not long after that, she said the new sweetheart will fake some type of health issue or family emergency when in reality it’s a ploy to get money.
“They will pepper with talk about trust,” McGovern warned. “‘You can trust me! I’m real!’ If they’re over embellishing a lot of that stuff, that’s a red flag as well.”
The FTC shared some of these fake lovers’ favorite lies:
- Claiming they or their loved one is sick, hurt, or in jail
- Offering to teach people how to invest money
- Pretending to be a member of the military based far away
“When you see that photo and the description of the person you know overseas, military or overseas, doctor…things like that are just definite tells that an account could be fake,” McGovern stressed. “Or if they don’t have any followers, or if they have maybe 3 or 4 followers, that’s another sign as well.”
McGovern also said to watch out for any misspellings in messages. If there are a bunch of typos that’s a red flag too.
“Does it seem like a normal human having a conversation, or does it seem very forced or they’re not really sure of the English language or there’s a lot of words in there that might not mean anything,” McGovern noted. “So you definitely want to watch the language that’s coming through on your text to see. Hey, is this a bot? Is this AI? Is this somebody who doesn’t speak English?? as a first language?? Those are red flags as well.”
To report a romance scam, or any other scam, visit the BBB Scam Tracker or ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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