Internet dating fraud
08-Apr-2020 06:54
My friends, after about six months, said, “You know, you need a life.” I didn’t really like dating when I was 16, and I certainly didn’t want to do it at 52, but they said, . I had friends who’d met their spouses through online dating, and my mom said “Oh, one of my best friends met her husband online,” and we’re talking, like, 75 year-olds.So I figured well, heck, if it can work for them, then I can certainly try it.As the number of dating sites and social media apps has gone up, so too has the number of romance scams reported — from 17,000 in 2017, 11,000 in 2016, and 8,500 in 2015.
The Cut spoke to the victim of one such scam, Debby Montgomery Johnson, now 60, who lost more than a million dollars to a scammer between 20._________ How did you meet the man who would eventually scam you? I’d been married for almost 26 years, and he had a sudden heart attack and died. Lou left [for a short trip] on a Wednesday, and I got the call Thursday morning. Lou and I had been in the military, and when we went off on temporary duty, we always said “Good-bye, and see you soon.” It was kind of like that.For the latest household advice, GHI taste tests, tech and money-saving hacks, sign up to our weekly newsletter HERE!In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission received more than 21,000 reports about online romance scams, totaling 3 million in losses.Never send money to someone you’ve met online, no matter what reason they give or how long you've been speaking to them.5.
Don’t move the conversation off the dating site messenger until you’re confident the person is who they say they are. Ensure you use a strong password for your online dating profile and never access it from a free wi-fi connection in case scammers are lurking ready to intercept your details.
He was in between Malaysia, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur — the hardwood trees were there and they were being shipped to India. So he set me up on a Yahoo chat, and we would talk for hours at a time.