Romance Scam

Love scams occur when a criminal assumes 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. The criminals who perform Romance Scam are experts at what they do and will appear genuine, caring and credible. Scammers of this type are present on most dating and social media sites.

The scammer’s intention is to establish a relationship as quickly as possible, to endear himself to the victim and to gain trust. Cheaters can propose marriage and make plans to meet in person, but it will never happen. Eventually, they will ask for money. Scammers often say they are in the construction industry and are involved in projects outside the United States. This makes it easier to avoid a face-to-face meeting and more plausible when they ask for money for a medical emergency or an unexpected legal fee.

If someone you meet online needs your bank account information to deposit money, they are most likely using your account to run other theft and fraud schemes.

Tips to avoid Romance Scams:

• Be careful what you post and publish online. Scammers can use details shared on social media and dating sites to better understand and target you.
• Research the person’s photo and profile using online searches to determine if the image, name, or details have been used elsewhere.
• Go slowly and ask lots of questions.
• Beware if the person seems too perfect or is quick to ask you to leave a dating service or social media site to communicate directly.
• Beware if the person tries to isolate you from friends and family or requests inappropriate photos or financial information that could later be used to blackmail you.
• Beware if the person promises to meet in person, but then always finds an excuse as to why they can’t. If you haven’t met the person after a few months, for whatever reason, you have good reason to be suspicious.
• Never send money to someone with whom you have only communicated online or by phone.

In order for you to avoid becoming a victim of Romance Scam, we can run background checks on the person for you. Through our information gathering process and access to databases in over 240 countries worldwide, we are able to highlight individuals from the web and break down whether the person is a scammer or serious.

If you have been a victim of such fraud, and if you have even transferred funds, we are able to graphically recreate the path of the money and take appropriate action. If the fraud offense occurred months ago, the money has usually already seeped away in a country where access to it is no longer possible. And even our actions no longer contribute to the recovery of funds. If the transaction was made via cryptocurrencies, it is much more likely to succeed in the existing case.