Tell-Tale Signs That You are Dealing With A Romance Scammer

Better Business Bureau and Internet Crime Complaint Center have reported a prevalence of online scams and an increased number of people falling for them. The scams that have been reported before range from shopping scams and even to romance scams. Users of any age can become victims of scams. A greater number of young people fall for scams. Statistics however show that seniors get scammed out of more money compared to younger generations.

They occur when a criminal creates a fake profile and fakes romantic interest in an online user through a dating app or any social media platform in a bid to create a feeling of trust with the intention of scamming the user out of money.

Between 2018 and 2019, romance scams increased by about 40%. Romance scammers will create promises and fictional stories so that they get their victims to send them money. With the increased fame and popularity of dating sites and apps, spotting fake profiles that belong to romance scammers may be deemed difficult. Here are three telltale signs that you are dealing with a romance scammer:

Romance scammers use fake profile images to protect their own identities. To keep you hooked, these scammers make promises to meet you in person even if it may force them to fly overseas. When the actual meeting date approaches, the romance scammer will have an emergency that arises. Their fabricated stories are mostly emotional and elaborate and can be convincing to a victim who is blinded by love.

If a love interest asks for money before you meet in person, it is likely that you are being scammed. Romance scammers are very good at coming up with believable stories. Common reasons they’ll provide when they are asking for money include payment for gambling or debts, payment for emergency and medical bills and payment for travel expenses.

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You can also tell if you are messaging a romance scammer just by their profile pictures. Such scammers impersonate somebody else and are going to have one or two images of the person they are pretending to be.

 Authentic dating sites have numerous pictures of themselves in different situations that range from face shots to full-body shots. Romance scammers may also choose to include images that only show a portion of their face on their profiles. Such photos aren’t recognizable against other pictures on their profiles.