Romance scams are on the rise across the U.S.

Trade

Trade

Well-known Member
https://money.yahoo.com/romance-scams-cost-202205142.html
A report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that romance scams are soaring, with more than 21,000 people reporting them in 2018.

Based on 21,368 reports about romance scams submitted, the FTC found that Americans involved had lost a total of $143 million, which was “more than any other type of consumer fraud” identified by the FTC’s team, the report stated.

“These reports are rising steadily,” the report added. “In 2015, by comparison, people filed 8,500… reports with dollar losses of $33 million.” The Consumer Federation of America also noted several romance scams in their latest report.

People over 70 losing $10,000 to scammers
The median loss to an individual who was a victim of a romance scam was $2,600 in 2018. That was “about seven times higher than the median loss across all other fraud types,” the report stated.

The demographic of people aged 40 to 69 reported the highest losses. Additionally, people over 70 reported the highest individual median losses due to a romance scam — a staggering $10,000.

The report noted that romance scammers lured people with fake online profiles, “often lifting photos from the web to create attractive and convincing personas.”
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It's a rare week that I don't get some E-mail Spam regarding "Senior Meeting/Dating". I suppose that older folks who have lost their mate might be tempted to "explore" some of these sites....but, like most Spam, the odds are that it is just a ploy to get money from those who respond.
 
But there are also a lot of people who get together online and form really wonderful honest relationships. So don't let the bad apples ruin it for everyone else. As Trade said, be careful and use your brain and gut feelings.
 
The reason I posted this is because it seems to me we've been getting more suspicious traffic lately.
For example the person that was using a picture from a Russian dating site as an Avatar. That's not the only one either.
 
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must say I have not noticed -maybe coz I dont get them ' but had a couple on a site I was on long ago
load of BS , not amused by scammers !!
 
A friend of mine who is a woman about 65 years old joined several dating sites after breaking up with her boyfriend. She was emotionally vulnerable, to say the least. An extremely handsome man about 5-10 years her junior contacted her from one of the dating sites. She was flattered and was immediately smitten with him. A group of her friends, including me, tried to warn her that this was probably a scam. The guy lived abroad, owned some kind of company that had 75 offices in the United States, was a widower with two adult children and was having trouble getting back in the U.S.

He slathered attention on her with emails and texts that made her swoon. This went on for months. Although she never admitted it, I'm almost certain she sent him money; money that she didn't have to give in the first place. Suddenly everything stopped. He cut off all communication and she never heard from him again. We had told her about a website called PigBusters.net which is a scammer awareness site. I suspect that she went there, realized she was being scammed and shut him down.
 
Trade said:
https://money.yahoo.com/romance-scams-cost-202205142.html


Click to expand...


It's not difficult to evade email scams. Create one "dummy" email account that you use
for nothing but a heat sink, the one demanded by sites to 'activate your membership' via email.

Reserve one email account, give it out only to friends who are computer-savvy.
Even then, use Filters and Folders, to send email you want to one place, and just ignore the rest.
And we all have well-meaning friends who inadvertently spread a virus by sending attachments.
This works well:
https://virusdesk.kaspersky.com/
 
Leann said:
A friend of mine who is a woman about 65 years old joined several dating sites after breaking up with her boyfriend. She was emotionally vulnerable, to say the least. An extremely handsome man about 5-10 years her junior contacted her from one of the dating sites. She was flattered and was immediately smitten with him. A group of her friends, including me, tried to warn her that this was probably a scam. The guy lived abroad, owned some kind of company that had 75 offices in the United States, was a widower with two adult children and was having trouble getting back in the U.S.

He slathered attention on her with emails and texts that made her swoon. This went on for months. Although she never admitted it, I'm almost certain she sent him money; money that she didn't have to give in the first place. Suddenly everything stopped. He cut off all communication and she never heard from him again. We had told her about a website called PigBusters.net which is a scammer awareness site. I suspect that she went there, realized she was being scammed and shut him down.
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This is why this type of scam continues to work: pride and shame. The scammers count on the victim hiding the truth.
An opportunity is here to be filled: market a background-checking service.
The trouble, of course, is that the persons who most need such a service are too shallow and gullible to use it.
 
Trade said:
The reason I posted this is because it seems to me we've been getting more suspicious traffic lately.
For example the person that was using a picture from a Russian dating site as an Avatar. That's not the only one either.
Click to expand...

It's nice that this got posted. Fortunately I'm not really at risk for this as I'm not looking for any kind of romance. But, some people don't know any better.
 
Now and then I get a romance scam e-mail or private message usually associated with a forum membership from someone claiming that they had a special feeling about me after reading my profile. They think they we could be the best of friends, life partners, etc. The writing is usually in broken English, and often from someone in a part of the former Soviet Union. The patterns are familiar and recognizable, and you can smell the scams from a mile away...
 
I have never joined one of those sites, and have no interest in it. BUT, that being said, if I did, and a man said he lived overseas, I would be out. That is a big tell. A usual ploy is he is an American, stuck abroad and needs money to get back. Nope. Or then, I could tell him I would send him cash, just give me his address. Then he would get some of that "fake" US money they use in movies and on TV. It is marked "movie money" somewhere on the bill. Would love to see someone try to bank it.
 


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