According to consumer finance exerts, Americans lose over $200 million a year in online romance scams. These scammers typically target lonely senior citizens. However, younger adults fall victim to romance scams as well. Luckily, there are some easy tips that you can follow to prevent a con artist from stealing your heart and life savings.
1.) Suspicious Photos
Most romance scammers use fake photos – typically of models – for their online dating profiles. If the person in a dating profile looks like they are a model, then you should definitely be suspicious. However, not all romance scams use photos from models. A growing number of con artists are stealing photos from real dating profiles to use for their scams. Luckily, you can research the authenticity of anyone’s picture by conducting a reverse image search on Google. A reverse image search will let you know if the same photo has ever been used anywhere else online.
2.) Quick to Profess Love
Most online romance scammers will be quick to say that they love you without really knowing you very well. The scammer is hoping that they can appeal to your emotions (and that your emotions will cloud your better judgement). Therefore, before you let yourself fall in love fast, make sure that you know the other person is real – and that their love for you is real.
3.) Taking the Conversation to Another Platform
Every online dating site features a way for members to communicate with each other through the site (either by chat and/or email). This is to protect members so that they don’t have to reveal their personal contact information. However, a romance scammer will often immediately want to take the conversation to another platform like phone or email. Therefore, you should be very cautious about conversing with someone you have just met via phone or email. Instead, you should keep the conversation on the dating site until you are sure the other person is real.
4.) Unable to Meet
Most users join online dating sites to meet someone to date (in person). However, a romance scammer will never be able to meet you in person. Therefore, if you have spent a long-time talking to someone who claims to really care about you, but they aren’t interested in meeting, then you should question whether that person has genuine, romantic interests in you.
5.) Poor English
Many online romance scammers operate out of foreign countries like Nigeria. That means their English writing skills are often bad. If you come across a dating profile with a lot of spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as awkward wording, you should be suspicious. Likewise, if someone sends you messages that contain a lot of mistakes, then you should be suspicious as well. International scammers will often pick random cities to list on their profile. Therefore, you can ask them questions about the city they list on their profile to get a feel for if they are really from there.
6.) Requesting Money
Finally, the biggest red flag that should alert you to a potential romance scam is if someone asks you for money. Remember, you joined a dating site to give your heart to someone, not your life savings. Just make it a policy that you will never send money to anyone that you meet on a dating site. Then, if someone gets mad at you for refusing to send them money, you know that they aren’t really in love with you.
In short, when it comes to matters of the heart, people often make poor judgements, especially when it comes to money. Therefore, when you join an online dating site, you must err on the side of caution. If a user’s photo looks suspicious, conduct a reverse image search to find out who they really are. Those who are quick to profess their love to you – and requests that you take the conversation to another medium – are often scammers. If you have been chatting with someone for a long-time and they refuse to meet, there is a chance that they are a con artist. Poor English skills are another red flag that a dating profile might be an international scammer. Last but not least, if you meet someone who wants money, they are (likely) trying to rip you off. Don’t send them any money – and report their profile to the dating site.