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A victim may even get a call from an accomplice who claims to be a lawyer or doctor to lend credibility to the tale. Be wary of sending money to someone you have never met in person, especially via a wire transfer service, like Western Union or MoneyGram, or a prepaid money card, like Green Dot. Once a person wires money to a foreign country, the money is generally unrecoverable.
Online dating and romance scams are sophisticated operations that are typically conducted by criminal gangs. Con artists share information about victims and may target victims more than once. Some scammers induce victims to share personal information or images and then threaten to post or distribute them to the friends, family members, and employers if the victim refuses to pay.
The following are some tips on how to protect yourself from being scammed and what to do if you become a victim:. For years, scammers have duped people into wiring money using wire services. Today, scammers are increasingly asking people to pay money with reloadable, pre-paid debit cards. Scammers are constantly reinventing new ways to perpetrate old ploys.
Whether you're contacted by phone, mail, email, text, or in-person, the following tips provide advice on how to spot a scam. This guide will inform you about the common scams aimed at seniors and the steps consumers can take to thwart the swindlers. Home How Can We Help? Online Dating and Romance Scams A recent study indicates that 15 percent of American adults use online dating websites or mobile applications. Maria and Andrew seemed to hit it off and began planning a road trip for that summer when Andrew would come back to the U.
The Phony Profile Romance scammers often create a phony profile. Protecting Yourself Online dating and romance scams are sophisticated operations that are typically conducted by criminal gangs. The following are some tips on how to protect yourself from being scammed and what to do if you become a victim: Be careful about sharing sensitive personal or financial information with someone you have not met in person.
When using an online dating site, use a separate username and different email account to protect your privacy. Wiring money is the same as sending cash—once the money is sent, it is generally lost for good. If an online prospect claims to be a United States citizen living or working in another country and asks you for help or money, refer the prospect to the local U.
Embassy or Consulate. If you want to send money, consider a U. This is the most scam intolerant dating service on the web! About Nigerian scams. Nigerian scam comes in many forms: scam, when they offer to transfer millions of dollars into your bank account, or lottery scam, when they tell you that you've won something in some bogus lottery.
However, Nigerian dating scam or romance scam , besides just asking for money for their studies, sick relatives, etc..
They pretend to be the foreign specialists working in Nigeria or Ghana usually originally from US and UK, but it may also be Canada, Australia or any other European country. Recently there are also Nigerian scams originating from Malaysia, China, India, Turkey, Spain, Cyprus, Egypt, as that's where Nigerians are located since they can easily get to these countries without visas or on the student visas. Men are usually widowed engineers, building contractors, military, vet doctors, surgeons or antique dealers. After they establish some lovely correspondence with you, fall in love and maybe even send a couple of cheap presents, they will either: a be almost on their way to meet you, but something will happen to them: they will get robbed, beaten, get into the hospital, or other misfortune will happen and of course you will be their only contact to ask for financial help, or: b tell you that their employer pays them with Money Orders or checks, and they can't cash them in Nigeria.
They will send you the Money Orders or checks and ask you to deposit them into your bank account and then wire the money to them via Western Union. Usually they say to keep some money for your trouble. Needless to say, those Money Orders or checks are no good, and not even worth the paper they're printed on.
If you cash them or deposit them into your account, Money Orders or checks will come back after few weeks as fraudulent and you will be responsible for paying back the money to the bank and sometimes even charged for passing counterfeit instrument. There is also a re-shipping scam, when they will ask you to re-ship goods for them. These goods are purchased with stolen credit cards.
Never re-ship anything for strangers, especially to Africa. There is a reason why online merchants usually don't ship there.