It’s the month of love… and everyone seems to have romance on their minds. It’s also the time to be CAREFUL of romance scammers. Bad enough we have to watch out for deception of the usual kind but add money to the mix and you could get much worse than a broken heart.
Online dating sites are expected to bring in millions this week – but Brits are being warned to be cautious as there seems to be an increase in romance fraudsters.
The headlines say it all…
Woman discovers online lover is fake after remortgaging her home to send him £30k
Women targeted in ‘romance scams’ lose £100,000 in space of two weeks
Online Fraudsters Conned Me Out of £40,000 Whilst Online Dating
There’s even a show on BBC One dedicated solely to this topic: For Love Or Money.
Kym Marsh and Ashley John-Baptiste are on the trail of the criminals extorting vast amounts of money from unsuspecting victims under the guise of love. Today, they’re investigating a man who, after targeting a businesswoman on a dating site, proceeded to trick her over a period of months out of almost £60,000. As they unravel the evidence that allowed the fraudster to appear so plausible, there’s a dramatic showdown with the man himself. Also, one man reveals what it’s like to have your photos stolen and used as part of an online ‘catfishing’ campaign, and an extraordinary international con is exposed.
There are so many pitfalls to online dating; false profile photos, false profile info, unclear motives, unbalanced emotional people, unclear past behaviour, people on the lookout for just sex.
It’s like being addicted to lottery tickets thinking you’re going to win next time. It’s a scary place on the internet for the romantically inclined.
Internet and 21st-century dating is hard. With so much influence from technology, people just don’t seem to go out and meet other people in person anymore. How’re you supposed to meet someone when you’re busy at work all the time? How do you find Mr. Right (or Ms. Right) when you don’t socialise every weekend? Some of us don’t particularly like going to the bars… ever heard the phrase “meet market”? If you’re careful, if you’re honest, if you’re discerning, you CAN meet someone online. It does take time.
Learn more about the pros and cons of online dating HERE and have a look at my friend Verity Geere’s book Man Detox about her adventures in digital romance HERE…
Have you ever used a dating app or met anyone online? What do you think about online romance? I’d love to hear all about it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
