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Protect Yourself from Online Dating Scams

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$200 million: The amount people were ripped off by online dating scams in a year.

1FDUI: dating while under the influence…of the quest for love…is costly to countless people.

A nytimes.com article notes that this quest impairs judgment, making it easy for con artists to bilk lonely people. Or are some people just plain stupid? But many victims are highly educated.

It all begins with a phony profile that grabs the victim’s attention. The nytimes.com report points out that the scamster uses attractive photos stolen off of other sites.

INTERRUPTION: If he/she is too gorgeous to be true, right-click the image to see where else it appears online! Is “Emilene McKenna” whom she says she is?

These scammers come from anywhere on the globe.

  • They prey upon loneliness, greed and desire.
  • Overseas scam rings
  • Solitary scammers working at home late at night
  • Women, not just men
  • They almost always profess to be in a glamorous or exciting line of work, though occasionally, they’ll pose as a more common person (perhaps to appear less suspicious).
  • People of all ages and walks of life, plus sexual orientations, are targeted.
  • The common denominator is a request for money.
  • Reasons for money requests run the gamut but usually focus on medical bills, legal fees or fees relating to a planned trip to meet the victim (which never occurs).

The nytimes.com article quotes victim specialist Debbie Deem that these con artists are skilled at mirroring the victim’s needs and creating “a sense of intimacy very quickly.” The victim soon becomes convinced that this is their soulmate—and thinks nothing of sending them the requested money.

However, the scammer may reveal their true colors after luring the victim into posing for raunchy photos or videos: The crook threatens to expose these unless the victim sends them money.

Other Facts

  • Being offered a spouse is a growing ruse.
  • Some victims have lost over $400,000.
  • Significant contact from the scammer lauding the victim.

How to Protect Yourself

  • If you haven’t already figured that out after reading this article…I’m very worried.
  • In addition to right-clicking the photo, copy and paste the profile’s narrative into a search engine and see if it shows up anywhere else like on an unrelated person’s blog or another dating profile under a different name.
  • NEVER SEND MONEY! Think: They’ve gotten this far in life without your financial help; they’ll survive without it.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to BestHomeSecurityCompanys.com discussing burglar proofing your home on Fox Boston. Disclosures.

North carolinians scammed for millions dating online

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Linda was ripped off for $8,000 all because she believed Greg was whom he said he was. Linda, from North Carolina, was nabbed by an online crook who promised her love.

This year, 17 (possibly more) such victims have reported a dating scam that has cost them a combined $700,000, says the North Carolina Attorney General’s office. The typical victim is a woman in her early 60s. One victim sent her online Casanova nearly $1.3 million.

1F

How can people be so gullible?

Desperate for love, victims believe anything their love object tells them. Greg convinced Linda he was an Army lieutenant. After several weeks of texting, he told her he needed medical help for a gunshot injury. She sent him money. Greg asked for more money and Linda sent more. Eventually, Greg obtained her bank account information.

She continued sending him money for this and that, including a plane ticket home where he’d meet her for the first time. Of course, he never came “home.” And Linda is wiped out financially.

Lonely, older women are not the only victims.

Even lawyers, doctors and CEOs are getting scammed, sending out large amounts of money to these fake love interests.

Most of the scam artists come from Nigeria, says the state Attorney General’s office, and it’s a numbers game for them. Run enough numbers and eventually they’ll hit the bull’s eye. They steal photos of good-looking people off the Web to represent the fictitious love interest. The photo of “Greg” has even made a few other rounds.

Often, when the victim figures out what’s really going on, they are contacted by a private investigator or detective offering to find the scammer—for a fee—you guessed it; this, too, is part of the scam.

Solution

#1. Never under any circumstances send money to someone you meet online

#2. The moment they ask for money, it’s a scam

#3. Never share usernames, passwords or account information

#4. If you know someone who could fall for this, get involved now

Many dating sites have some security measures in place behind-the-scenes, to help educate and protect their members. Look on their site and often times you will find help videos of how to avoid being scammed and how to report suspicious behavior so that the dating site can take action. 

The more sophisticated sites also offer a defense-in-depth approach to keeping their site and members safe, by layering authentication, trust, and fraud detection tools to help with the early detection of bad actors.

Device reputation is one technology used by many dating sites that allows them to share fraud and abuse reports across businesses and geographies. Dating sites access Portland-based iovation Inc.’s device reputation service, ReputationManager 360, so that they can stop scammers before they get in the front door. iovation’s fraud prevention service contains over 7.6 million reports of dating scams, solicitations, phishing, account takeover attempts, identity theft, spam and other forms abuse. The service has stopped over 22 million online fraudulent or abusive attempts within online communities alone.

Stopping scams and abusive behavior upfront greatly helps online dating sites not only protect their brand reputation, but most importantly protect their active members.

Robert Siciliano, personal security and identity theft expert contributor to iovation. He is the author of 99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Your Mobile was Hacked! See him knock’em dead in this identity theft prevention video. Disclosures. For Roberts FREE ebook text- SECURE Your@emailaddress -to 411247