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  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 16, 2023 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: catfishing, , ,   

    Romance scammers are FaceTime frauds 

    By Greg Collier

    A lot has been made about romance scammers in the news this week because of Valentine’s Day. While it’s always a good thing when the media shares information about this scam, it’s a scam that people should watch out for all year round. While the scam largely targets the elderly, anyone can fall victim to the scam regardless of age or gender. To complicate matters, romance scammers can use technological tricks to get around some of the red flags.

    For example, a widow from California recently lost $120,000 to a romance scam. The victim had met the scammer on Date, a dating platform primarily used by Jewish singles. The scammer claimed to be an international businessman from Germany living in Texas. That should have been a red flag, as romance scammers almost always pose as someone who is often out of the country. Other popular positions that romance scammers claim to have are being stationed overseas in the military or oil rig workers. This gives the scammers plausible deniability when it comes to meeting in person.

    That leads us to our next red flag, as the scammer in this instance also kept making excuses as to why the pair couldn’t meet in person. Then the requests for money started, which should be the biggest red flag indicating a romance scam. However, this particular scammer used a gimmick that probably made all the red flags go away.

    According to the victim, she would talk to who she thought was her romantic partner over the video chat app FaceTime. Typically, on FaceTime scam calls, the scammer will only show a picture and will claim that there’s something wrong with their camera or device. However, it’s not unheard of there being convincing filters that can imitate other people while FaceTiming. An untrained eye may not be able to spot such a ruse, but you can see how that might convince someone that their online relationship is real.

    When it comes to romance scams, no red flag should ever be ignored. If you’re using a dating site and someone asks to move off the platform to communicate, that could be a red flag. Always do a reverse image search, as scammers will often use pictures that are stolen from online platforms. And most importantly, never send money, no matter how big or small the amount.

     

  • Geebo 8:00 am on October 6, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: catfishing, , , ,   

    Romance scammer defrauds victim of $82,000 

    Romance scammer defrauds victim of $82,000

    By Greg Collier

    Romance scammers are some of the cruelest scammers out there. They take advantage of someone’s loneliness while stringing them along for weeks or months before leaving them with an empty bank account or worse.

    This is what happened to a woman from the Chicago area after meeting a man online. The 37-year-old woman met her scammer on the dating app Hinge. The scammer claimed to be an architectural engineer from Greece, who was currently working in America. The scammer also claimed that he had a five-year-old daughter who was living with his sister in Utah.

    The conversations moved off the Hinge platform and on to various other methods, including phone calls. The scammer acted like a man in love, while the victim thought she was in an authentic relationship.

    Six weeks into the phony relationship, the scammer started sowing the seeds of their master plan. He claimed he needed to get $500 to his sister to help pay for his daughter’s care. The victim sent the $500 to the sister through PayPal. To lull the victim into a false sense of security, the scammer actually paid back $500 to the victim. As we’ll see, $500 was a small price for the scammer to pay to get their ultimate payoff.

    The scammer sent the victim a check for $85,000. He claimed the money needed to go to his daughter, but he couldn’t get to his own bank. He asked her to deposit the check in her account before wiring $82,000 to the supposed man’s sister. The scammer even advised her to deposit the check through an ATM, probably so it wouldn’t draw any attention from bank employee’s. The check turned out to be fraudulent, leaving the victim with a negative balance of $82,000.

    When the victim messaged the scammer about the check, the scammer went dark. However, she did receive a Facebook message claiming to be from the FBI telling her that she had been scammed. This message was more than likely from the scammer as well.

    Anybody who asks you to deposit a check into your account to pay someone else is almost assuredly trying to scam you. Banks do not wait for the check to clear before making the funds available. There is a several day window where the scammers can strike. If the money is taken out of the victim’s bank account before the check clears, then the victim will be responsible for paying that money back to the bank.

    Dating apps typically do not do any kind of background check on their users. If you meet someone online, the first thing you should do is a reverse image search to make sure they’re not using pictures stolen from elsewhere on the internet.

    Lastly, if the person you meet claims to have a job that makes it difficult to meet in person, this is a good indicator of a potential scam. These jobs can include a military member stationed overseas, oil rig workers, and international business workers.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 24, 2022 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: catfishing, , , , ,   

    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.

     

  • Geebo 9:00 am on February 17, 2020 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , catfishing, , ,   

    Romance scam could leave victim homeless 

    Romance scam could leave victim homeless

    As we have discussed previously, romance scams are no joke. While some victims have been taken for hundreds of thousands of dollars, other victims have ended up in jail after stealing money to give to their fictional flames. For those of you who may be joining us for the first time, a romance scam is when a con artist uses social media or dating apps to lull their victims into a phony online relationship. When the victim appears to be smitten, the con artists will ask the victim for money under the guise of some kind of emergency or favor. Once the money stops, the con artists will cut off all communication with the victim.

    Something equally as disastrous recently happened in the Phoenix Metro area. Police there were called to a local Walmart when a worker noticed a woman had been there for more than a day. When police got there, there discovered the woman had been the victim of just such a scam. In her case, the scammer got her to give up her life in another state and fly to Arizona thinking that her new online love would be there to meet her. When she messaged who she thought was her boyfriend asking why he wasn’t at the airport to pick her up, the scammer once again asked her for more money in the form of gift cards. Once the scammer received the money they cut off communication leaving the woman stranded in Arizona with no place to turn to.

    Thankfully, the story has somewhat of a happy ending as one of the police officers bought the victim a plane ticket back to her home state out of his own pocket. However, the victim said she stopped paying rent where she lived thinking she was starting a new life. Unfortunately, this is just one story in a long line of romance scam victims who have been left destitute by the scam. These victims range in age, education and economic status. Just about anyone can be a victim.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAKynrXd0DA%5D

    If you think you or someone you know may be the victim of a romance scam, the Federal Trade Commission has a great website on how to recognize a romance scam. Don’t let your heart trick you into making dangerous decisions.

     

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