Illinois, Watch For These Signs Of A Romance Scam On Valentine’s Week

It's the week of love, but it's also a week of scams.

If you're really jaded when it comes to love, you might argue that love itself is a scam. If you're more open-hearted and romantic, you might be inclined to fall for some of the scams that are plaguing Valentine's 2024.

You'll always run into scammers, whether it's through texts, social media, or real-life. This week, they're really active in the dating world for the single folks so here's what to look out for.

Love Bots Exist

If you've watched the Ashley Madison docuseries, you probably remember how the company came under fire for using girl bots to flirt and talk to the men because there weren't many actual women on the site. With AI and deepfakes being more common place now, it isn't hard to create multiple love bots.

They Pretend To Be Heroes In Another Country

According to the FTC, they might say they're Marines, diplomats, generals, admirals, or surgeons who say they can't speak or show their face because they're in Afghanistan, Ukraine, or South Sudan, but obviously they're not.

They Move Really Fast And Say They're In Love

Relationships move at all different speeds and scammers know this. They might do something like say they love you and ask you to spill all of your secrets with them.

They Need Expensive Favors

Scammers always ask for money in some form. They might ask you to pay the "shipping fee" for a package of cash, gems, or gold. Maybe they need new phones for the kids that don't exist or gift cards.

They Promise A Visit But There's Always An Emergency

Maybe they need you to cover the cost of a "lost plane ticket" or a "medical emergency". They promise to come see you if you send them money.

If the person you're talking to in a dating app asks for money, it's a scam. Anyone is at risk for romance scams, it's just the way scammers operate.

How To Be Safe

Online dating is a dangerous proposition. I navigated it okay but I definitely stayed close to some security protocols over the years. The FTC has recommendations on what to do when you're in the online dating world:

• Be suspicious of why an IRL meeting never seems to happen
• Do a reverse image search of the person's profile pictures to see if they're stock images. (I saw one guy use an influencer's pics ha)
• Tell a trusted friend you're talking to someone online and what you know about them.

If you think you've got a live one on the scammer DM's, report them to the website or app and then report it to the FTC at this website.