Don’t Let Love Rob You Blind
February 14th, 2010 by Max Anhoury
Love may be blind, but blind love on the Internet can cost you more than heartbreak – it can cost you your life savings.
Each year, thousands of individuals put their trust in other people that they meet online. Even when a relationship never moves out of the virtual realm, a deep emotional connection (or the illusion of one) can develop surprisingly fast. Unfortunately, this can set unsuspecting victims up for a rude awakening when an online romance results in emotional abuse, financial fraud, or both. In an attempt to educate people about this unfortunate possibility, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is promoting “Scams Awareness” month and warning lonely hearts of the dangers of Internet dating scams this Valentine’s Day.
The recent Computeractive article, “Lonely hearts warned of Internet dating scams,” explains some common online romance scams. In one common scenario, a fraudster assumes the false identity of a foreign national working and living in West Africa. After stringing along an online acquaintance for weeks or months at a time—building trust and developing a romantic relationship—the impostor suddenly experiences some kind of financial hardship and finds himself in need of quick cash. That’s when he asks the victim for money to get him out of his bind. Once the unsuspecting victim sends the money, the fraudster is never heard from again.
Individuals can greatly reduce their chances of becoming victims of these type of scams by taking a few common-sense precautions. However, it is also the responsibility of internet dating sites and other online communities to make sure they are implementing effective anti-fraud tools and techniques to make their sites more secure and better protect their members. iovation works actively with the online dating community and, as a recognition of our success, we recently won the Best New Technology Award at the 2010 Internet Dating Awards.
Tags: online dating scam
