MIAMI – With the help of the FBI, a 66-year-old woman said she was sharing her heartbreak to help others who are looking for love on social media.
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The woman is among the over 7,625 victims older than 60 who fell prey to “confidence fraud/romance scams” resulting in a $389 million loss last year.
“We kind of connected emotionally,” the woman who lost about $90,000 said adding that she was “very vulnerable at that time” since she was “going through a divorce.”
The victim said the scammer’s messages “were like a drug” so there were red flags that she missed and wants others to beware of these.
Scammers often profess love without meeting you in person, try to isolate you from family and friends, claim to be working and living far away, and make plans to visit you but always cancel.
“Scammers are professionals at manipulating their victims, and operate without conscience or compassion,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Mehtab Syed said in a statement.
Some red flags: Beware of anyone asking you for money even if it’s after weeks or months of communicating, asks for your help in moving money, or asks you to send compromising photos or videos of yourself.
“Don’t get taken advantage of,” the victim said. “It’s so hard and it hurts at the end, it really hurts, and I want to save people from this hurt because you do hurt, and it takes a while to put yourself back together again.”
Here are some tips to avoid the scam:
- Be careful what you post because scammers can use that information against you.
- Assume that con artists are trolling even the most reputable sites.
- Go slow and ask questions.
- Research the individual’s pictures and profile using other online search tools to ensure someone else’s profile was not used or to see if that same pitch is being used on multiple victims at once.
- or asks for your financial information. Never send anything that can later be used to blackmail you.
- Some victims who have agreed to meet in person with an online love interest have been reported missing, injured, and, in one instance, deceased.