How to Spot an Online Romance Scammer?

How would it feel when you are looking for love on online dating sites but getting scammed there instead of love? Must be heartbreaking, isn’t it? Not only do you lose the person you thought of spending life with but you also lose your hard-earned money.

Globally millions of people use dating apps and websites. There are also a lot of success tales of people using the online platform to discover love and friendship. In addition to the success, however, there are also growing numbers of online dating scammers.

If you don’t want to be the next victim of these scammers, this article is for you.

What is an Online Romance Scam?

A romance scam is when a fraudster attracts someone into a fake relationship. Usually, scammers take help from online dating apps to create fake identities to attract their targets. Once victims start showing interest, the scammer will work to build trust until they take enough money and even information and disappear.

How to Spot an Online Scammer

1. Fake Dating Profiles

Scammers need to maintain believable profiles across many different platforms that’s why they use stolen information and pictures of real people.

Here are some ways to identify fake dating profiles:

• Usually, scammers select profile photo that appeals to their victims. they often use stock pictures or photoshopped images of actors or models.

• Fake dating profiles are likely to have less number of followers or connections.

• They have a few pictures of them on their profile and prefer to post pictures of their hobbies or animals instead.

1. Wanting You to Get Off the Website

It’s very common for scammers to persuade their victims to converse on another app like WhatsApp. In this way, they’ll able to avoid the security processes that most dating sites or apps possess. 

It allows scammers to access personal information such as primary email address, phone no. etc.

Switching to a different platform for communication might not be strange. However, you should not give out your personal information to strangers especially if you have never met them before. Using caution while handling personal data can also help you protect yourself from identity theft and fraud associated with it. 

1. Speeding in Relationship

Another factor that indicates the romance scam is when they speed up in a relationship. They’ll try to give you commitment quickly and give false promises of marriage or moving in together.  Especially be aware of their compliment tactic, where they’ll shower you with lots of attention in a short time. They follow a pre-written script to catch victims easily in their trap.

Don’t let yourself be easily manipulated by such stuff. Since you’re meeting the person online take your time to get to know the person.

1. Refuse to Video Calls

If a person you’re in touch with through some dating app and they’re skeptical about showing their face, it’s likely to be a scammer. They might not be the person they are showing through their profile pics and conversations on chats. Their fabricated reason for not being able to call will often lead them to ask for financial help. It’s better if you avoid them entirely.

If you suspect, you can record your conversation so you have the evidence to showcase in the case that you become a victim. 

1. Always Dealing with Some Emergencies

Once they get assured that they have gained your trust, they’ll start feeding your mind with their stories of financial suffering and emergencies happening in their life, and how they are finding difficulty in managing their day-to-day expenses.

With such stories, they’ll gain your sympathy and start asking for help in terms of finance. Take it as a red flag and quit your conversation with them.

1. Manipulate You in Giving Personal Information

It’s not just the money they want from you, they also want to access your personal information. It depends upon their goal and what exactly they want to steal. It could be your identity or a sensitive photo to blackmail you.

Never trust a person easily you meet on an online dating site and give out your personal information, even if they are asking you to prove your commitment to the relationship.

No genuine person in love will ever ask you such things and would invade your private matters.

1. Always Travelling or Live Far Away From You

A common strategy for romance scammers is that they would like to meet in person but when the time arrives they always come up with some unexpected issue.

They claim that they are from the United States or some overseas or traveling. Since they aren’t what they are portraying so, they always deny meeting in person.

Try to connect with them through a video call, if they agree make sure you pay attention to the video quality, their demeanor, and accent. If their appearance or behavior is different from their actions via text, it may indicate you’re dealing with a scammer.

If You’re Dating a Scammer, Do This

• The first thing you can do is to break off all your contacts with them. Calling out scammers not only allows them to defend themselves but it also provides them another opportunity to try to deceive you.

• Report the scammer's account as soon as possible, the dating app can take some action quickly.

• If you have provided the scammer with personal or financial information freeze your credit cards and inform your financial institution so they can take safety measures to protect your account.

• Change your passwords and enroll in two-factor authentication (2FA) as soon as possible. By doing this, you'll be safer to account takeover scams. authorize