Ahead of Valentines Day, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General is warning people about potential scammers that are targeting those looking for relationships.
Online romance scams, also known as Catfishing, are on the rise across the country and in the state. Attorney General Dave Sunday said that scammers will use the holiday to target single people in chat rooms and other online platforms to bilk them out of money. Scammers will often search someone’s social media accounts to get information they can use to build trust with their victim. He said that the criminals will do whatever they can to bilk someone out of their cash.
Some red flags to look out for include the suspect wanting to leave the dating site to go to private messages; making excuses not to meet in person or go on video chat; contacting victims from inconsistent phone numbers, email addresses or multiple online profiles; and asking for money through gift cards or cryptocurrency. Other red flags include:
- Says they are from the United States, but that they are traveling or working overseas.
- Plans a visit, but is prevented from travelling due to a traumatic event or work conflict.
- Changes their story or history frequently. For example, how many siblings or children they have or what city they live in.
- Attempts to isolate you from your family or friends. This may look like the scammer asking you not to tell someone about the situation or the scammer asking you to lie about an aspect of your interaction with them.
- Seeks personal or financial information, or compromising photos early into the conversation.
- Fake profiles
- Using exciting text messages or sending an unsolicited friend request on social media.
The Attorney General says if you’ve been victimized by this scam, you can submit a complaint with the office of Attorney General’s Bureau of Consumer Protection on their website, www.attorneygeneral.gov, calling 1-800-441-2555 or by email.
