Valentines Day Dating Scams Warning

Introduction

With Valentines Day being today, it’s important to look at the risk factors as well as celebrating the occasion. This time of year is the ultimate peak of online scams from catfishing to identity theft and many more. It’s crucial to be aware of these scams and how they are calculated. This blog & podcast covers the top common online dating scams and how to identify them.

Catfishing

Catfishing is the term used to describe when someone sets up a fake online profile to trick people who are looking for love. This is very common, with around 20,000 people a year getting catfished. The key signs of a catfish are:

• Their pictures are too attractive to be true.

• Overuse of same pictures on every social media site.

• Never able to video chat or call.

Romance Scams

Romance scams occur when a criminal adopts a fake online identity to gain a victim’s affection and trust. The scammer then uses the illusion of a romantic or close relationship to manipulate and/or steal from the victim. This is similar to catfishing but with a more financial determination. The keys signs of romance scammers are:

• Romantic messages and promises of a loving relationship.

• Asking for money or financial information.

• Emotional blackmail tactics such as guilt-tripping or threatening to harm themselves if you don’t comply with their demands.

• Sudden emergencies such as medical or financial that requires you to give them money.

Sextortion

Sextortion is a serious crime that occurs when someone threatens to distribute your private and sensitive material if you don’t provide them images of a sexual nature, sexual favors, or money. Its usually when somebody repeats kind of the first couple of steps of the last two scams, which is build a trust relationship that then turned the conversation sexual and they will attempt to elicit sexually explicit content from someone, generally photographic videos of them. The key signs of this scam is:

• Explicit threats of sharing an intimate image or video.

• Demands for money, images, or sexual favors in exchange for keeping your material private.

These three online scams are the most recognisable and the most common. These are just brief descriptions of what the key signs are. Have a listen to our podcast to hear the full discussion and more about these common online dating scams. Are you a business who needs to train their staff on how to look out for phishing scams? if so, take a look at our page.

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