ORLANDO, Fla — With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, people need to know about the dark side of romance that can ruin lives and leave victims heartbroken. Romance scams cost Americans more than a billion dollars in 2023.
Romance scams are sophisticated. There are entire networks of scammers, usually overseas, that treat scamming like a business. They find vulnerable people, manipulate them, and often get away with big money.
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With more people looking for love online, criminals know it and they use that to prey on people.
Action 9 spoke with a central Florida woman whose mother fell victim to a romance scam that started online.
She said, “I have seen texts on her phone that say, ‘Hey, baby, how are you? What are you doing tonight, baby?’”
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Her elderly mother had more than $600,000 in late 2022. She fell in love with someone online who claimed to be the face of Tesla and Space X, Elon Musk. The scammer used artificial intelligence to make it more believable.
“They hear that voice. They hear Elon Musk’s voice, and they know it’s his voice,” she explained.
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First there were wire transfers with huge amounts of money going out. She showed Action 9, documents indicating one wire transfer topped $100,000. It was money her mother believed she was investing. There were daily ATM withdrawals of $3,000. Much of the cash went to buy gift cards for the scammers. In less than a year, her life savings was wiped out.
“You may have entered into the dating scene or a dating app looking for love, but scammers are out there looking for their next victim,” said Better Business Bureau President Holly Salmons.
She told Action 9, in these scams of the heart, the bad guys work to gain their victims’ trust and then work to get their money.
Here are some red flags:
-The relationship moves quickly
-You never meet in person
-The love interest claims to be a celebrity or in the military
-They ask for money or try to draw you into an investment like cryptocurrency
Salmons said, “Especially if this is not why you came to the dating app, right? Most people did not come to a dating app for investment advice.”
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Like many romance scams, for the woman Action 9 interviewed the scam meant devastation. Her mom now lives on Social Security, stress on the family mounted quickly and she wants to warn others before they lose everything in romance scam like her mom did.
She said, “It’s like you want to walk out of her house and scream or cry. It’s so frustrating.”
If you fall victim to a romance scam, contact the FBI through its IC3 website(Home Page - Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)) and the Federal Trade Commission to file a complaint(ReportFraud.ftc.gov). Also, report it to the social media company where you met the scammer. Unfortunately, many times the victims still never get their money back.
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