You’ve probably
heard about romance
scams where con artists
trick unsuspecting victims into falling in love
– and parting with their
money. Lately, BBB
Scam Tracker has been
getting reports of a diff erent type of romance scam.
In this con, the entire dating website is a sham.
! &
You sign up for a dating
service that seems legitimate. The site asks you to
fi ll out a profi le with your
personal information. This
includes your credit card
number, which is used to
pay for your membership.
However, when you
start browsing other users’ profi les, you notice
red fl ags. Other members
who contact you have
incomplete profi les that
lack photos and other basic information. The site
may encourage you to
connect with people who
don’t match your dating profi le. For example,
they may live in a different city or be outside
your preferred age range.
Photo: Lisa Zins
You may also notice that profi les frequently vanish from the
site—even after you’ve
chatted with them.
It turns out that these
other daters aren’t even
real. The site is fi lled
with phony profi les, making you think that the
site has many members.
Once you fi gure out the
hoax, you try to cancel
your membership. But the
site just keeps billing you.
In some cases, the
scam dating site requires
you to pay to contact other “daters.” One victim
reported joining a dating
service where she bought
“coins” to chat with other members. “I was bombarded with messages
from nearly 200 diff erent
users in only a few days
and without even fully
fi lling out a personal profi le,” she told BBB Scam
Tracker. “I paid for coins
three times and was double charged each time.
This site hires operators to
steal photos, assume fake
identities, and then bombards users with messages
to entice them into buying
coins to conversate by lying and leading people on.”
Do your research
before you sign up. Do an
internet search of the dating
website’s name along with
the words “reviews” and
“scams.” Look carefully for
negative reports or past users who suspect the website
is fake.
Photo: Joshua Hoehne
Make sure you understand
how the website works. It’s
not entirely unusual to pay
a monthly fee or small fees
for individual connections
to dating services, but be
sure the website is upfront
about how their payment
system works. If the payment system isn’t well
documented or you fi nd it
confusing, choose another
dating service instead.
If it’s too good to be
true, don’t believe it! For
example, it’s probably a
scam if you haven’t completed your profi le and people are lining up to meet
you. The same goes for individuals who make unrealistic claims about their love
and devotion for you – especially if you just met online.
Use your credit card
to pay for online services
and memberships. When
you pay with your credit card, you can dispute
any unauthorized charges
or charges made for fake
services. The same may
not be true if you use your
debit card or give a company
your banking information,
such as your account number
and bank’s routing number.
Never give money or
personal information to
a stranger. Some con artists will ask you for money to buy a fl i
