Romance Scams

You meet someone special on a dating website or on social media. They claim that you have many things in common. Soon they may move off the dating website to email, phone calls, or texts. They claim to live far away – maybe for business or because they are in the military.

They build trust and profess their love quickly but soon ask you to send money. They may say there is a family emergency or that they need money for plane tickets to come visit you. They may ask for gift cards, wire transfers, or for you to send them cryptocurrency. These types of transactions can be difficult to trace and are rarely refundable. Scammers make fake dating profiles, sometimes using photos of other people – even stolen pictures of real military personnel. They build relationships – sometimes even fake wedding plans – before they disappear with your money.

• Never send money or gifts to someone you have not met in person. If you aren’t sure, talk to a trusted friend or family member about the situation.
• You can search online using keywords or reverse image search to see if a person is using the same story or picture to scam others.
• Share this information with a friend. You may not have had this experience, but chances are you know someone who has.
• Report scams to the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraudftc.gov. This can help track down the fraudster and protect additional people from being scammed.
• Report the scammer to the social media platform or dating website.