The digital era was ushered particularly by modern high-speed broadband internet, portable smartphones, and mobile apps. They, in turn, led to skyrocketing popularity of online dating. And as in other areas, this became a new opportunity for online scammers who, in the good ol’ days of the early internet, were only known for email spam. Online scams can seriously undermine trust in online interaction and lead to more unpleasant consequences in real life, such as money theft. If you are an internet regular, it is usually important to maintain a healthy balance between skepticism and openness.
FEEDING ON LOVE AND TRUST
Scammers essentially parasitize on modern ubiquitous availability of the internet and its regular usage, as well as human feelings in particular. Express VPN’s research shows that online love scams are rising, particularly in the United States. This specific scam could be regarded as one of the most perfidious, well above notorious Nigerian scams. ExpressVPN cites a report released by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission on romance scams, where an estimated 547 million USD was lost to fraudsters in 2021 alone—an 80% increase compared with the previous year. Another telling example is the case of Simon Leviev (real name Shimon Hayut), on which the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler is based. Leviev scammed more than 10 million USD from several women on Tinder, where he posed as a wealthy diamond mogul. Not surprisingly, at least one romance fraud involved a Nigerian scammer, Olayinka Illumsa Sunmola, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison. Practice shows that, in general, women are more likely to fall victim to romance scams. But both genders should equally exercise healthy caution while online.
WARNING SIGNS
There are various telling signs of an online scam. First, the receiver’s information could be anything from a bizarre email address to a suspiciously good profile photo that doesn’t match the writing style. At the same time, you may notice a suspiciously flamboyant, ungrammatical, or otherwise unnatural writing style, filled with superlatives, compliments, etc. Like in the well-known snake oil pattern of the past, an online scammer often tries to buy your trust and sell nothing except non-existent promises of huge sums, gold, and other incentives.
An outlandish or exotic story presented to you by someone is also a sign of something odd. In fact, stories of military service, some special mission or job serve as a template for repeated scams, so whenever you’re contacted by a self-described American soldier or a person with a similar background, ignore them no matter how attractive their stories may look.
A scammer may also ask you to switch to another online communication venue. Never do that, as any other website or software proposed to you would most likely be unsafe and insecure.
Not responding to your questions in substance or replying irrelevantly is another tell-tale of a scam. You may notice such behavior, particularly when chatting with the scammer. The internet contains various examples of when potential victims used such instances and trolled the scammers, making fun of them. If you feel there’s enough evidence collected, you can report the scam to the police or cybersecurity authority even if no harm has been done.
A nearly always reliable sign of a scam is asking for money or payment in some form – whenever it appears, be sure to stop further communication immediately.
Sometimes strange or odd messages may come from accounts of persons you know personally. This typically means their accounts got hacked or are infected. In such cases, contact the relevant person by phone and warn them about the incident.
CONCLUSION
Scammers target not all persons with the same frequency. Try to minimize your digital footprint by opting out of non-essential services and unimportant newsletters. Check your spam and hit the unsubscribe button in every message that has it. Reject non-essential cookies when browsing websites, and do not give consent to process your data whenever possible. Always make sure your antivirus is on and running. Scan your device from time to time. While all of this will not shield you against scammers completely, it will certainly make you a less attractive target for them.
