MSB Blog

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Monson Savings Bank is bringing awareness to romance scams. Online dating has become a very popular way to make romantic connections and meet new people. It has become even more convenient to date online in recent years with access to various dating apps and social media platforms. While many people have been able to form lasting relationships after meeting one another online, unfortunately some can experience heartache and financial headaches because of something called romance scams.

With the rise in online dating came a rise in romance scams. Last year, $304 million in losses related to romance scams was reported to the Federal Trade Commission. This is a record breaking amount of money stolen in a scam and is about 50% more than what was reported in 2019.

Monson Savings Bank is offering the following information to help keep you from becoming victim of a romance scam.

Romance Scam Red Flags

• The most obvious sign of a romance scam is an online love interest asking you to send them money. They may ask you to wire or transfer money, send money on a gift card or even request cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin.
• Con artists will ask you for money, sometimes with a very convincing reason for needing the money. They might say they need money to pay their Wi-Fi or phone bill so that they can continue talking to you. Sometimes they will claim to have a fictitious medical emergency.
• Your online love interest is not able to meet you in person. They may give excuses of being in another country on a business trip or on a military deployment.
• They may just claim to live far away from you and ask you for money to use to purchase plane tickets to come visit you, this is just another excuse to scam you out of your money.
• Attempting to lure you off the dating site to speak via text message or social media is a common tactic for romance scammers to use.
• Your love interest will not video chat with you or will not show you a live view of their appearance.
• Romance scammers often steal other’s photos and details to build a convincing online profile. If you are concerned that the person you are speaking to online might be scamming you, try doing a reverse-image search of their photos. If that search yields photos connected with a different name, there is a good chance that you are being scammed.
• Romance scams are not limited to online dating sites, a scammer may contact you on a social media site as well, like Facebook or Instagram.

What should you do if you have already sent money to a romance scammer?

• Contact your bank immediately to inform them of the situation.
• Report the situation to the online dating site or social media platform, this could help other potential victims as the scammer’s profile will most likely be removed.
• Report the event to the Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov

Romance scams can be really difficult to recognize because the scammer may spend a lot of time building your trust and a “relationship” with you. This is a very deceptive scam that greatly involves the scammer playing on the victim’s emotions. You might start to feel like you really know this person, despite never meeting them in person or video chatting with them.  In the digital age, it is quite normal to us for form relationships with people we meet online, but we must always remember to keep our guard up no matter how normalized this has become.

As always, Monson Savings Bank make it a priority to protect our customers from financial harm, but we also care about our customer’s overall well-being. By staying alert to red flags associated with romance scams and other scams, you can prevent yourself from financial heartache. Learn more about ways you can protect your private personal information through Monson Savings Bank’s Safety and Security Blog category.