Ah, romance!
It’s Valentine’s season and love is in the air. Flowers, sweet treats, and fancy dinners abound, so do online would-be Romeos and Juliets.
The promise of love can make you do crazy things like sending money or inappropriate videos and photos to an online sweetheart that you’ve never met in person. Online lovers and BFFs can send you heart-wrenching sob stories that are designed to manipulate that money right out of your bank account and into their greedy little hands.
Those totally private videos and photos that you send to your electronic betrothed can be used to betray and humiliate you into sending them money. While we’re here, let’s remind ourselves to not send those photos and videos to those we do know, too.
Here’s the thing…
It happens to the young, the old, and all genders. No one is immune and can be on the receiving end of proposals from these kilobyte clowns.
With all of this in mind, protect yourself.
- Be cautious of someone you meet online who quickly becomes your best friend and is just so perfect. Scammers are experts at manipulating emotions and know exactly what to say.
- Don’t share inappropriate videos or photos with anyone as these can be used for extortion.
- Be on your guard when your perfect, online love tells you a heart-wrenching story, and you can fix it all by sending them $1,000 dollars. The Internet is full of examples of these scams.
- Be careful!
Testimony from victims:
- Audio story of a lady who lost just about everything
- St. Louis woman swindled out of $1.2 million by romance scammer
For more information:
