Warning: Top Valentine’s Day Scams
Some people are looking for love, and some are so desperate for love that they’ll do anything for it.
It’s Valentine’s Day, so here’s a heads up of several warnings from the Federal Trade Commission with its list that shares some very unloving things to look out for today.
We get it. It’s Valentine’s Day and many people don’t want to be alone, or they just want to be able to say that they have someone to help fight their loneliness. However, some folks become so desperate, wanting or needing someone so badly, that they lose sight of the possibility that someone may be using them or trying to con them. When this happens they’ll do just about anything, and rationalize otherwise obvious red flags in order to keep the fake relationship real in their minds.
The agency has revealed the most common romance-related scams designed to swindle people out of their hard-earned money by tugging on their heartstrings. The scammers romance their marks, then shake them down for cash using several different types of excuses to get their money.
The most commonly reported scam was to have a “newfound love” convince their “new love” that they need money because a loved one was sick, hurt, or in jail. 24% of potential victims reported this scam.
At 18%, there was a three-way tie for the second-most-common scam. Scammers offer their “love” the chance to score on an investment. The scammer pretends they’re in the military far away, and they try to convince their target that they need money to make a delivery or send them something.
The FTC says 12% of consumers reported people asking for money after proposing or talking about marriage, even though they never actually met them.
Then there’s “sextortion” which is something that’s becoming a more and more common and growing threat. This is when a scammer manages to get a person to send an explicit photo of themself and then threaten to publicize it unless they send them a large sum of money. Sometimes the threat continues even after the money is sent and received. The FTC says reports of this kind of scam have increased more than eight times in the past few years, with victims between the ages of 18 and 29 six times more likely to be targeted compared to older victims.
The report states that romance-related scams fooled over 70,000 consumers for more than $1.3 billion last year.
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