Greg's Corner

The other victims of romance scams

By Greg Collier

Typically, when we discuss romance scams, or catfishing as it’s sometimes known, we talk about the victim who ended up losing money to these scammers. However, there’s sometimes another victim in these scams. In romance scams, the scammers often use the photos of actual people and in some cases even impersonate that person. This could lead not only to unnecessary grief for the person being impersonated, but it also has serious safety implications as well.

A woman from the Scottsdale area of Arizona found herself in the middle of one of these scams. She suddenly started receiving emails at her business, before receiving phone calls at home about a man who was allegedly threatening to show up at her home or business. The man claimed that they had been dating online for months and that he flew from New York to see her. A romance scammer had tricked the man using the woman’s identity into thinking he was in a relationship. It’s believed that the man had given the scammer a substantial amount of money. According to reports, the scammers cut off communication with the man once he landed in Arizona.

According to the Scottsdale woman, the New York man had trouble accepting that he had been scammed and directed his anger toward her. She claims the man has been leaving voice messages on her phone from multiple phone numbers. She has no idea what the man even looks like.

Since the woman is a business owner who deals in social media, she has a large social media presence. This allowed the scammers to essentially copy her life and use her online identity in their scam.

To better protect yourself from not only being in this side of a romance scam, but from other scams as well, it’s best to change your social media profiles to private or friends only. While it’s not a guarantee your online photos won’t be used in a scam, It does help in discouraging scammers from doing so.