Online Romance Scams

Bel, a newly divorced mother of twins in Toronto, had a close call with romance scams.  Her husband had run off with a fresh-out-of-college intern. Bel felt old, dumped, unwanted and desperately lonely.  Until she was swept right off her keyboard by an online guy.  GreatGuy211 was a madly successful business consultant in London on assignment working with the CEO of a publishing house.  He said her photo absolutely floored him. It reminded him of his devoted mother, who had just passed 6 months ago.  GreatGuy211 wrote poems about her, about how she was sent by God as an answer to his prayers.  After all he was still grieving.

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How Bel was Scammed

Well our friend Bel learned that Great Guy had a much bigger upset in his life. He said that he was worried and upset about his little sister. Why? Because she got into a terrible car accident.  His sister, he said, needed an operation right away.  The publishing house was going downhill and late in giving GreatGuy211 his $100,000 check.  Could Bel loan him $2000, just for a week?  His little sister would become a cripple if she didn’t have the operation right away.

Bel was not love-blind and contacted us for dating coaching.   Her love mentor said, “Whoa.  Block him.”  She quickly did and followed the rest of my dating coaching program.  I’m thrilled to say, Bel is dating two awesome real guys who live in the Toronto area.  Harry, a restaurateur who looks a bit like an older David Beckham and Nolan, a playwright who is crazy in love with her.

Romance scams in online dating have become so popular that they has lured international criminals who operate in rings. According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center romance scams took in $230 million in 2016 in the U.S. alone. Most of the victims were women ages 40 to 59. And some of them lost more than $1,000,000.

3 ROMANCE SCAM RED FLAGS.

• He lives outside of the country. This fact doesn’t necessarily mean the guy is a con man. However,  you should know that many romance scam rings operate abroad and prey upon unsuspecting U.S. women.
• He quickly wants to email outside of the online dating site. Because he is using a fake name and email address that make it harder to catch him.
• The guy comes armed with a sob story. He has a dear family member in need of help. Or a friend had a tragic accident out of the country without access to needed cash and/or he just lost his wife.

Plus there are other significant red flag signs that show you are dealing with a potential romance scam, which we don’t have time to go into here. To learn about how to date safely and find the One online, pick up a copy of Love in 90 Days, now revised and expanded.