We’ve seen it everywhere the past few weeks. Red and white has painted the interiors of every store. The chocolate aisles suddenly grew three times larger, and little hearts showed up on nearly every cupcake, cookie and pie. Even if you don’t subscribe to the commercialization of Valentine’s Day or the holiday itself, it reminds us of our basic need for love.
It’s a need so basic, we often will go to the ends of the earth to find it. You could probably think of a few times you did something outrageous for love. We all seek it, and sometimes those quests take us into dangerous territory. Our need for love overwhelms our judgment and we find ourselves trapped, conned or scammed, left with less than what we had when we began.
The Better Business Bureau wants you to keep an eye out for romance scams during this time. It may seem easy – but highly intelligent people have fallen victim to the increasingly sophisticated tricks pulled by those who are interested in nothing other than our bank accounts.
As more and more people turn to the internet to find love or companionship, it has become normal to share personal information with strangers online, to date “long distance” before ever meeting in person, and to grow a relationship through text or phone calls. Unfortunately, this has created the perfect breeding ground for scams.
Scammers use these methods to con people into fake relationships. It may seem real to you, as the scammer becomes proficient at luring you in with romantic messages, compelling photos and what feel like genuine phone calls. But often, they have an excuse as to why they can’t meet in person. They may say they’re in the military, that they’re travelling for work, or that they simply live in a different city than you but plan to move eventually. In the meantime, they work their magic building up a relationship with you.
Then, suddenly, they have a family emergency. Or they’ve been laid off at work. Or they want to come meet you but simply don’t have the funds. This is where some victims begin to get wise, but the lure of something potentially real stands in their way. They may say “this sounds like a scam lol” before being reassured that it’s not. But it is. And the victims end up losing what seemed to be a promising romantic partner, their hard-earned money and their sense of trust. They may hit emotional or mental lows, embarrassed they’ve been hoodwinked and worried they’re not good enough for real love.
To help yourself avoid all this, the BBB recommends you stay aware of the warning signs. If a person appears too attractive in their profile picture, it may have been taken from another site, advertisement or someone else’s social media page. Be wary if they seem in a hurry – they may try to move very quickly off the dating app into a more personal form of communication or appear invested right away. They often say they’ve never “felt this way before.” They may talk about trust, a way to manipulate you into securing their trust by eventually sending them money. They may make excuses as to why they can’t meet or feed you a hard luck story about their life to grow your sympathy.
The BBB reminds you to never send money or personal information that can be used in identity theft to someone you’ve only met online. Stop talking to them if they ask for your banking or government information. Ask specific questions about their profile and see if they stumble over details. And do your research. Search up their name or other information you have about them to see if it fits. You can put their profile picture into websites like tineye.com to see if it originated from somewhere else.
For more information on romance scams, you can visit bbb.org/romance to stay safe.
