How to Spot and Avoid Online Dating Scams

March 6, 2024

8 min read

Although social media and online dating have grown in popularity as resources for people looking for meaningful connections and love, they have also become widespread tools for dating site scams. Such fraudsters create fake profiles in order to entice victims, start romantic relationships, and ultimately demand money. Check out everything about the main signs of a romance scammer and make the most of valuable tips on how to protect yourself while communicating online.

Best Reliable Dating Sites

10.0

What Are Online Dating Scams?

Online dating scams may result in negative consequences for online communication. According to FTC reports, romance scammers are successful in deceiving you into parting with your money and heart by telling a variety of falsehoods. There are several types of scams you may encounter on online dating sites:

Catfishing. The fraudsters exploit the victim financially after creating a favorable environment for communication. Usually, such scammers create fake profiles on dating services and social media sites to seek out their victims. Based on statistics, 35% of all online daters have already experienced catfishing at least once.
Sweetheart scams. In this case, scammers are looking for the weak points of their victims (divorce, widows) and using them at their disposal to lure money. Such vulnerable factors as loneliness play a cruel joke on many love-seekers.
Mail order bride scams. A lot of dating app scams come hand in hand with international marriages. Fake mail order brides troll the Internet for victims and put much time and effort into creating serious relationships. They create a scenario and demand money after they have the victim’s trust.

How to Spot a Scammer on a Dating Site?—10 Main Red Flags

Check out the most widespread romance scams red flags to get prepared for your journey in advance and preserve your safety during your love-seeking ventures.

Your partner wants to move communication away from the dating site. Therefore, they can reveal your contact information and use it for fraudster tricks.
A person you chat with asks a lot of personal questions. Some may seem to direct, for example, those about your financial state of affairs, permanent address, and monthly income.
Your admirer avoids answering personal questions or is confused when answering the same question. The details they do provide you with do not seem real or are fabricated.
Some Filipina bride scam cases may involve sad stories of poor ladies who are in search of love. These stories are usually standard, so don’t be surprised if your partner asks you for a money transfer sooner or later.
Your potential partner calls you pet names or sweethearts without mentioning your real name. This red flag means that a scammer is communicating with several victims simultaneously and doesn’t want to be exposed.
Your significant other tells you about financial issues frequently in the hope that you will offer to help.
An excuse for a personal meeting or a web session is the most obvious sign of internet dating site scams. You will never discover who sits on the other side of the screen.
When you look up their profile photo on reverse image search, it appears to belong to someone else.
Your partner wants to record your nude video session. It may be a spot for blackmail.
The person you chat with says that they sent you a gift, but they need some money to pay for a delivery.

Popular Romance Scammer Tactics

Once you get to know the main romance scammer tactics, you can easily discover how to avoid romance scams and start your dating journey without worrying that someone will lure your money. These examples may help you recognize scammers on dating sites and leave your privacy and online protection intact.

Quick Relationship Development

One of the most prominent signs of romance scams is when your partner quickly develops relationships and expresses strong feelings surprisingly fast. They may even say that they love you and propose marriage. However, this is one of the most widespread romance scammer tactics to get you to give up personal information and answers to security questions. Therefore, fraudsters may get access to your billing accounts.

Excuse for Emergency, Travel, or Bills

This is another fraudster’s tactic that will help you discover how to spot a scammer. Be cautious if your partner asks you for financial aid, no matter how serious your relationships may seem to be. Most often, scammers pretend that they need money for emergencies, travel, and bills. By the way, you can check out the most popular romance scammer lies to get prepared for your romance communication.

Giving a Sense of Isolation

A no less popular romance scammer’s tactic is that con artists apply special tricks to isolate their victims from their relatives or friends. Therefore, their victims won’t be able to seek advice in case they suspect something unacceptable. Typically, scammers claim that their friends are jealous or don’t understand their relationship. Thus, they drive you into a trap, minimizing your chances of getting to the bottom of the truth.

Creating a Fake Identity

This is probably the most popular Russian bride scams, when ladies create fake accounts on questionable websites to get acquainted with men and swindle their money. They pretend to fall in love and apply romantic tricks to make men fall in love with them.

After building trust and a special connection, they usually ask their partners to send them money or expensive gifts. By the way, the US is included in the list of countries worldwide that fell victim to online dating scams last year, so you will need to exercise caution when chatting on questionable sites.

How to Avoid Romance Scams?

If you are all about enjoying your dating experience online and staying away from scammers, you may use these tips.

Use the services of reliable dating sites or mail order bride services. Such platforms include anti-scam policies and verified profiles of beautiful ladies to create a secure environment for communication.
Read the user reviews about a particular platform. As a result, you may determine whether a particular dating site is trustworthy by drawing inspiration from actual user experiences.
Cross-check the identity of your partner. If you want to establish relationships with a particular person you meet online, you will need to determine whether you communicate with a real person. Use Google Lens to verify the authenticity of your partner’s photos.
Slow down. If you notice a red flag or suspect a scam, you will need to ease off. Make your relationship’s development slower, don’t make any hasty moves, and talk with your friends and relatives about your situation. Your closest people may help you find the best solution.
Avoid transferring money to anyone you meet online. Do not send cash to an online love interest, wire money, load money onto a gift card, or cash reload a card. You will hardly receive your money back in such cases.
Communicate with your admirers using built-in messaging tools on the dating site. Therefore, there is no need to reveal your personal information to strangers you meet online. Moreover, you can always stop communicating if you don’t want to continue a romance.

How to Report an Online Dating Scammer

The most effective way to fight against scammers is to report specific cases and make them public. Here are a few effective tips to report a dating scammer and stay secure.

In case you suspect fraud or scam, go to the official FTC site and report the matter. This is an official governmental platform that shares reports with reliable law enforcement partners to help with investigations.
If you communicate on a dating site and suspect any lie, you can block the account of a person and report the case to customer support. If you use the services of a trusted site, you will certainly get guidelines and assistance.
What to do if you have already paid a scammer? Get in touch with the bank that issued the credit card or debit card. Explain your situation and your suspicion. Ask the bank to reverse the money transaction.
If you send money using payment systems such as Western Union or MoneyGram, you will need to immediately contact a corresponding company. Ask them to reverse the wire transfer and return your money.
Those who occasionally reveal personal information to a stranger with bad intentions should head over to IdentityTheft.gov and take essential steps to get a recovery plan. It is the federal government’s one-stop resource for identity theft victims.

If somebody discovers your email and password, read valuable tips on how to change them and create a strong alternative to protect your access to different sites.

Misael Gaylord

Misael Gaylord belongs to the most popular authors on mail-bride.org who shares his own experience and knowledge. Years of work in marriage agencies make him an experienced and self-motivated writer who creates great content for us.