When you’re lonely and looking for love, you’ll do just about anything to find someone to date. Your friends recommend online dating. Eager to finally get on the dating scene, you take your pick of several dating websites claiming that they’re safe. While most reputable sites advertise safety, people must still use common sense and exercise caution and online etiquette.

Traditional dating has evolved to include increasingly more digital activities such as email, text messages and online dating websites. While these activities aren’t in and of themselves dangerous, people partaking in these forms of communication must know how to tell who is legit and who is only looking to take advantage of someone desperate for attention. Otherwise, they leave themselves vulnerable to romance scams.

A romance scam is a crime executed primarily against women who are divorced or widowed. Scammers use the information people put on their online dating profiles to trick their victims into thinking they found a relationship. The scammer then builds the relationship as quickly as possible, leads the victim to put their trust in them and promises marriage. The scammer makes plans to meet the victim, but the meeting is always cancelled due to a financial need on the scammer’s end. They beg for money and make the victim believe the money is necessary to help them get out of their dire situation. Situations such as hospitalization, theft, and getting belongings out of Customs are most common alibis used to get the victim to willingly wire or send the scammer money.

The victim empties their bank accounts and even gets loans to obtain the amount of money they need to send. After the excuses keep building up of why the person cannot meet, the victim finally figures out that they’re being scammed. But by this time, the scammer has already blasted the victim’s information to other scammers, and the victim is placed on a “sucker list.” This begins a cycle of other scammers trying to form more relationships where the same victim is tricked into sending money again.

The FBI has published an article on romance scams in their efforts to inform the public of what to look for when establishing a relationship with someone online. To protect yourself from scams, the FBI recommends you research the person’s profile and photo to see if the content was stolen from another source; go slow in the relationship and ask a lot of questions; if the person seems too perfect or wants you to leave the dating site to have private conversations, don’t comply; beware if the person wants your financial information or requests inappropriate photos; be suspicious if the person promises to meet you, but something catastrophic always comes up where the meeting doesn’t happen; and lastly, never send money to anyone you’ve never met.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a romance scam, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center has a form you can fill out and submit online. It is available at www.ic3.gov. You should also stop all contact with the scammer. Cancel or suspend your dating website profile and change your phone number. Romance scams are not a joke. One of my close family members was scammed by a person who found their profile on a dating site. This affected me because I saw first hand the frustration, the emotion, the anxiety of believing the person was real and the heartbreak when I revealed that the person wasn’t real. It was difficult for my family member to let go of the person who scammed them. They wanted to believe the scammer was real because they painted such a realistic picture of a beautiful home, financial security and a perfect marriage. Beware of any person you meet online. Check your facts before proceeding in any relationship. Finally, never assume that a dating website is immune from scam artists. Even the safest sites have people trolling, looking for their next victim.

When you’re lonely and looking for love, you’ll do just about anything to find someone to date. Your friends recommend online dating. Eager to finally get on the dating scene, you take your pick of several dating websites claiming that they’re safe. While most reputable sites advertise safety, people must still use common sense and exercise caution and online etiquette.

Traditional dating has evolved to include increasingly more digital activities such as email, text messages and online dating websites. While these activities aren’t in and of themselves dangerous, people partaking in these forms of communication must know how to tell who is legit and who is only looking to take advantage of someone desperate for attention. Otherwise, they leave themselves vulnerable to romance scams.

A romance scam is a crime executed primarily against women who are divorced or widowed. Scammers use the information people put on their online dating profiles to trick their victims into thinking they found a relationship. The scammer then builds the relationship as quickly as possible, leads the victim to put their trust in them and promises marriage. The scammer makes plans to meet the victim, but the meeting is always cancelled due to a financial need on the scammer’s end. They beg for money and make the victim believe the money is necessary to help them get out of their dire situation. Situations such as hospitalization, theft, and getting belongings out of Customs are most common alibis used to get the victim to willingly wire or send the scammer money.

The victim empties their bank accounts and even gets loans to obtain the amount of money they need to send. After the excuses keep building up of why the person cannot meet, the victim finally figures out that they’re being scammed. But by this time, the scammer has already blasted the victim’s information to other scammers, and the victim is placed on a “sucker list.” This begins a cycle of other scammers trying to form more relationships where the same victim is tricked into sending money again.

The FBI has published an article on romance scams in their efforts to inform the public of what to look for when establishing a relationship with someone online. To protect yourself from scams, the FBI recommends you research the person’s profile and photo to see if the content was stolen from another source; go slow in the relationship and ask a lot of questions; if the person seems too perfect or wants you to leave the dating site to have private conversations, don’t comply; beware if the person wants your financial information or requests inappropriate photos; be suspicious if the person promises to meet you, but something catastrophic always comes up where the meeting doesn’t happen; and lastly, never send money to anyone you’ve never met.

If you or someone you know has been involved in a romance scam, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center has a form you can fill out and submit online. It is available at www.ic3.gov. You should also stop all contact with the scammer. Cancel or suspend your dating website profile and change your phone number. Romance scams are not a joke. One of my close family members was scammed by a person who found their profile on a dating site. This affected me because I saw first hand the frustration, the emotion, the anxiety of believing the person was real and the heartbreak when I revealed that the person wasn’t real. It was difficult for my family member to let go of the person who scammed them. They wanted to believe the scammer was real because they painted such a realistic picture of a beautiful home, financial security and a perfect marriage. Beware of any person you meet online. Check your facts before proceeding in any relationship. Finally, never assume that a dating website is immune from scam artists. Even the safest sites have people trolling, looking for their next victim.