It's Valentine's Day, and do we know what that means? It means romance scams. Let's talk about them briefly. In one U.S. city alone, San Francisco, there was $28 million in romance scams that occurred last year.
What Is a Romance Scam?
What is a romance scam? Well, it's generally when someone reaches out and tries to convince you to give them things that they shouldn't have. It always happens around Valentine's Day. Most of the victims are over 60years old, many of them widows or widowers. People who often cannot afford to lose money and often cannot replace what they lose.
How Romance Scams Work
People reach out through social media, sometimes dating apps, and quickly profess love and attempt to get you to share certain details that they can either use to directly take money from you or to fake your identity and do the same. It's instant whirlwind romance these days. There's actually a lot of AI involved in it, now, too. What is going on right now is the AI bots go out, start the conversations before Valentine's Day, and then on Valentine's Day, a human takes over to try to finish it.
So, they're basically phishing you with little AI chat bots and then trying to get the good stuff when you're going to be emotionally vulnerable. And that happens to be February 14th. This happens every single year. If you look, the FBI puts out warnings on it. Various attorney generals around the United States put out warnings on it, and it still happens.
Rules for Avoiding Romance Scams
Here's a couple of good rules for you about staying safe. These things may seem pretty obvious but are worth repeating.
· Never share anything with anybody.
· Never share bank details.
· Never share financial details of any kind.
· Never share how to contact you outside of whatever app you're in.
· Never download an additional app at someone's request.
You will often see scammers say something like, this isn't working well for me. Or can you download telegram or some other application? I’m not picking on them, whatever the application is. I mean, short of a Kanye West song, and I think we all know the one I'm talking about, the fact of the matter is, somebody who loves you wants your heart, not your bank account. And if they're asking for you to send them anything, gift cards, anything whatsoever, they're not really there for you.
This happens every year. Millions of dollars are lost. Most of the victims are older than 60. Most of the victims are alone, lonely, and looking for love. The people that do these sorts of things are just absolutely awful.
Check on Your Loved Ones
Don't fall for it and don't let your relatives fall for it. Check on your mom. Check on your dad. Check on your grandfather. Check on your grandmother. Valentine's Day scams happen every year. Look up romance scams if you want more information on them.
And in the meantime, be safe out there.
