It’s Valentine’s Day, and the FBI seized on the opportunity to inform love-stricken social media users about the proliferation of “romance scams” around this day.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation says that the criminals who carry out romance scams are experts at what they do. They spend hours honing their skills and sometimes keep journals on their victims to better understand how to manipulate and exploit them.
What exactly is a “romance scam?”
According to the FBI article:
“This devastating Internet crime is on the rise. Victims—predominantly older widowed or divorced women targeted by criminal groups usually from Nigeria—are, for the most part, computer literate and educated. But they are also emotionally vulnerable.
And con artists know exactly how to exploit that vulnerability because potential victims freely post details about their lives and personalities on dating and social media sites.”
In 2016, almost 15,000 complaints categorized as romance scams or confidence fraud were reported, and the losses associated with those complaints exceeded $230 million dollars. The states with the highest numbers of victims were California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Naturally, the domain RomanceScams.com is already registered, since 2005 and currently for sale on Sedo.
Learn more about romance scams by reading the full article by the FBI, titled “Romance Scams Online Imposters Break Hearts and Bank Accounts.”
Happy Valentine’s Day! 😀
