Romance scams are on the rise, and anyone can be a target. Scammers create fake profiles on dating sites and apps, or contact their targets through popular social media sites like Instagram and Facebook. They strike up a relationship with their victims and build trust, sometimes over months or even years. They eventually ask for money, often pretending to need it for medical bills, travel costs, or unexpected emergencies.
What will you do to avoid being a victim of dating scams online?
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Romance scam is one of the biggest challenges now in the world. Finding true love and affection is now harder than passing a camel through a needles eye. Romance scam is also associated with catfishing. We have heard stories about it, we have seen movies about it and most importantly a few of us can relate to it personally.
Dating sites are the most frequently used places for such dubious acts. Like the question rightly says, these scammers come in form of love and build trust with their victims. The victims on the other hand who are unsuspecting thinks he/she has found love. They begin to fall for the scammers. Sometimes these scammers can play a victim for long period of time just to gain enough trust before striking.
I saw in a movie where such victim even travelled down to the scammers country, and that was when she was abducted. The scammer took all her belongings and made her send all her funds to him and dropped her off at the airport and left her there. There was no way she could trace him or even report her supposed boyfriend. So she went back to her country penniless.
Some aren’t even as deep as money scam, some it can be in the form of being catfished. The person gives a false representation of his personality and physical attributes. The victim thinks to his/herself this person is my spec, and when they eventually agree to meet up, they find out they have been catfished. I read a story on the internet where the girl got to the location she and her dating site lover had planned to meet up and when she eventually saw him, he was disabled,(no offense to disabled people) but why deceive someone into creating a false image of you in their head, lead them into falling in love with you only for you to be the complete opposite of what the person had imagined based on your representation. Some even go as far as sending pictures of another person as themselves.
To avoid being a victim of romance scam, either by falling Inlove with the wrong person via calls or texting, or falling prey to money scammers, avoid finding love on dating sites. If you must then make sure you are doing so wisely, never fully trust a person you haven’t seen, met or spent time getting to know. I dare say even the people we spend time getting to know we never truly know them fully, talk less of the ones online you haven’t seen.
Never be foolish enough to give out your money to anyone you are meeting online, except you choose to help out of your good will, never allow yourself fall so deep Inlove to the point you cannot differentiate between extortion and lies. I know when you think you are in love and your lover has issues you want to help out as much as you can, but if you are doing so via dating sites then you are setting yourself up to be scammed.
A good example is the Netflix documentary tinder swindler.
This isn’t to say some persons do not find real genuine love on these dating apps. I know a few social media persons who pride themselves in the fact that they met on dating sites and their partners are the best decisions they have ever made. It’s a 10-90% chance, you don’t want to be among the 90% who have been catfished or scammed. So be wise, be alert and allow your head think before your heart.
In all, love can be found in strange places, don’t force yourself into relationship that aren’t right for you out of desperation, that is when you begin to fall for the wrong kind of people. When true love finds you, your heart and head will work in sync.
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