Romance scams have robbed consumers of at least $87,000. How to avoid getting scammed.
People continue to fall for romance scams at an alarming rate for an alarming amount of money. Our partners at the Better Business Bureau have received 37 reports in the last 12 months for losses totaling $87,880! Several people lost over $10,000 each.
The majority of reports come from seniors who just can’t afford to lose that kind of money.
The proliferation of online dating sites and social media makes it much easier for the scammers to ply their trade. Online romance scams are also called catfishing. Some are not real people and some may not be who they claim to be or may just be trying to get money.
Online dating has exploded over the last decade, especially during the pandemic when so many people were isolated and looking to connect. It starts out innocently enough with a connection. Then, it can get very serious very fast.
9 things to look out for in a potential dating scammer
The person seems too good to be true (handsome, beautiful, rich, wildly successful). Be wary.
They want to quickly move communications off the dating or social media site to communicate via text, email, phone or video chat.
They profess love very quickly or say they never felt this way before.
They frequently bring up how important trust is. This is usually a precursor to asking for money.
They speak strangely – they claim to be educated but frequently use poor grammar. They use ridiculously flowery language that is out of place.
They are never available to meet in person – on a trip, working overseas for an extended period of time, etc.
They tell a hard luck story – reversal of a business venture, they were scammed, illness or injury that requires expensive medicine or medical procedure; anything to tug on your heart strings.
Then they ask for the money – they hate to do it; they love you; it will be a short-term loan; if they can just get out of this bind, you can be together. Once you give them money one time, they will keep asking until you stop giving.
They ask for cryptocurrency – stay far away from anyone you don’t know very well who tries to convince you to deal in bitcoin or other crypto.
Here's how to avoid getting catfished
Never give someone your credit card information to book a ticket to visit you.
Think hard about paying for a ticket for them anyway if it is one they can turn in and redeem for cash.
Never send money or personal information that can be used for identity theft to someone you’ve never met in person.
Cut off contact if someone starts asking you for information like credit card, bank, or government ID numbers.
Ask specific questions about details given in a profile. A scammer may stumble over remembering details or making a story fit.
Do your research. Many scammers steal photos from the web to use in their profiles. You can do a reverse image lookup using a website like tineye.com or images.google.com to see if the photos on a profile are stolen from somewhere else. You can also search online for a profile name, email, or phone number to see what adds up and what doesn’t.
By all means keep looking for love but protect your finances while doing it!
Update on good news for consumer protection
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) continues to root out bad actors in the financial arena and hold them accountable with multimillion dollar fines and a force of change in processes, procedures, products, and consumer notifications.
Just last month, they issued an order against Chime, Inc., doing business as Sendwave. The Bureau found that Sendwave violated the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010’s (CFPA) prohibition on deceptive acts and practices by misrepresenting to consumers the speed and cost of its remittance transfers. The Bureau also found that Sendwave violated the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA) and its implementing Regulation E, including Subpart B, known as the Remittance Transfer Rule, by: (1) wrongly requiring customers to waive their rights; (2) failing to provide required disclosures, including the date of fund availability and exchange rate; (3) failing to provide timely disclosures; and (4) failing to investigate errors properly and maintain required policies and procedures for error resolution. The violations of EFTA and Regulation E also constitute violations of the CFPA. The order requires Sendwave to provide approximately $1.5 million in redress to consumers and to pay a $1.5 million civil money penalty. Sendwave must also take measures to ensure future compliance.
Our goal with Wallet Warnings remains the same - to help you safeguard your money. If you have any questions or need any additional information about anything discussed here, please call (901) 222-0206. We are happy to help you avoid scams, fraud and predatory lenders. You work hard for your money, and we want to make sure scammers don’t get it.
To view all previous Wallet Warnings, visit https://www.shelbycountytrustee.com/313/Wallet-Warnings
Regina Morrison Newman is the Shelby County Trustee.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Fight catfishing: Romance scams have robbed consumers of $87,000
