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This article is from Trend Micro.
Many people are looking for love online, and the search is even more common now during the pandemic. Romance scammers are looking for people to target, and they are happy to break hearts to get money. Here are a few things you should know so you don’t find yourself left poor and heartbroken by a scammer.
for these signs to decide whether you’re in a romance scam!
Scammers use many tricks during romance scams, but the outcomes are similar. Here are some common tactics:
The scammer tries to lure victims into investing. The norm is that they ask victims to wire them money; alternatively, they email the victim links to fake investment applications & websites. These links will be malicious phishing links, designed to trick the victim into revealing personal information to the scammers. What’s more, recently scammers learned how to exploit victims more thoroughly — with pig butchering scams.
Pig Butchering Scams
Also known as “Sha Zhu Pan”, pig butchering is the latest online dating scam, and it can be harder than other scams for victims to spot the red flags. You are treated like a pig in the butcher.
Why? First, scammers spend a long time winning your trust (normally 1 to 3 months). After that, they bring up some nice investments in cryptocurrencies and invite you to join them. Instead of asking for your money, they lead you to a third-party investment application or website.
Everything seems legitimate at first, and you can even withdraw your profit. Yet when you decide to invest in a large amount of cryptocurrencies, the website denies your request with various excuses — taxes, processing fee, or other technical issues. The “customer service” may even prompt you to provide more money. This is when the scammers disappear; they run away with all the cryptocurrencies you invested!
Learn more about investment scams in this article.
The scammers profess their love and offer marriage, but they can’t meet in person because they live too far away. Then they claim that an emergency has occurred, and they need money. In 2020, a common claim was that they have tested positive for COVID-19 and need money for treatment. After their target sends money, the scammer vanishes.
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The scammers claim that they want to send a gift from overseas, but a tariff or shipment fee is needed to send the goods. They ask the victim to wire money or send them prepaid cards and once they get the money, they disappear.
Many victims have reported sextortion after exchanging private photos or having intimate video chats. The scammers threaten to share the explicit images/screenshots to the victim’s contacts unless they receive money.
Is your online crush a scammer in disguise? Look out for these signs:
If any of these are true, your online relationship might actually be a romance scam. Be the one that got away!
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