Around one third of all adults in the United States have experienced identity theft. That’s when personal identifying or financial data is stolen. Identity fraud – which affected around one in every 15 people in the United States in 2019 – is when this stolen data is put to work for con artists. One of these uses is bait for romance scams.
Romance scams clocked in at the second most costly con of 2019 snatching over $475 million from lovestruck victims. The perp will create a fake identity on a social media platform, dating site, or dating app, and strike up an online relationship with the target. These relationships tend to escalate quickly with strong feelings and pressure to rush into a commitment that culminates in convincing the target to send them increasing amounts of money for everything from health crises to travel to business investments. Perps capitalized on the COVID-19 crisis resulting in a nearly 20% rise in romance scams from 2019 and 2020, according to the Better Business Scam Tracker.
However, it’s not just the heartbroken target that ends up the victim of this con. Scammers often use photos, names and personal identifying information scraped from real people’s social media accounts to pose as lovestruck suitors. The more details harvested the more convincing the con. Those impersonated, while not directly financially impacted, do have their lives disrupted in very real ways. This may mean having to field piles of messages from scorned lovers, constantly report fake accounts opened in their name, and even being implicated in the crime itself.
How can you prevent becoming bait in a love scam? Cyber hygiene! Make sure your social media accounts have a degree of privacy that limits access to photographs of you, and to your personal identifying information. Be careful about what you share on social media because it can be used to fabricate a convincing impersonation.
Romance scam red flags have changed somewhat with the COVID-19 situation. With travel restrictions and social distancing measures, many people are stuck on opposite sides of a border, unable to travel, or unable to meet in person. However, refusing to video chat, talk on the phone, or send new pictures besides the one on their profile are still red flags. Coming on strong and quickly escalating the relationship is a red flag. Chronic crises are a big red flag.
Building fake online dating identities from snatched photos is common. If you suspect someone you meet online may be trying to run a love scam on you – or even if you don’t but want to be on the safe side – run a reverse image search on their profile picture to vet their identity. Go to images.google.com and click on the camera icon to search by image. Then paste the URL for the image, drag-and-drop, or upload the image and see what comes up.
It is not overbearing to run a background check on someone you’ve never met who wants you to wire them thousands of dollars because they want to buy a plane ticket to come and be with you. If you suspect a scam, contact Mignolet@Bellsouth.net for a background check. Better safe than scammed.