Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the FBI has issued a warning about fraudulent schemes perpetrated via online dating services.
Recommendations for recognizing an online dating scam artist provided by the FBI include:
Your online “date” may only be interested in your money if he or she:
– Presses you to leave the dating website you met through and to communicate using personal e-mail or instant messaging;
– Professes instant feelings of love;
– Sends you a photograph of himself or herself that looks like something from a glamour magazine;
– Claims to be from the U.S. and is traveling or working overseas;
– Makes plans to visit you but is then unable to do so because of a tragic event; or
– Asks for money for a variety of reasons (travel, medical emergencies, hotel bills, hospitals bills for a child or other relative, visas or other official documents, losses from a financial setback or crime victimization).
One way to steer clear of these criminals all together is to stick to online dating websites with nationally known reputations.
Read the whole FBI warning here.
