Sweet But Poison | Be careful of Romance Scams

Have you received any unexpected messages lately？ For example, a message popped up on a mobile dating app: “Hi, is that you (name)？” “Who is this？ Why are you in my friends？” It sounds casual but piques your curiosity enough.

Just when you think it could be your chance of getting hit by the cupids love arrow, but unbeknownst to you, this could be the start of a “romance scam”, also known as a “honey trap”.

The romance scams started becoming fairly active in early 2021. It is a well-organized syndicate scam that disguises itself in the world of online dating to induce funds for investments, gambling, Ponzi schemes, and more.

Now, these romance scams are on the rise in several countries and regions.

According to a Federal Trade Commission report, a record $547 million in losses were reported in the United States, which is an increase of nearly 80 percent from 2020 to 2021.

In Japan, the National Consumer Affairs Centre saw an increase in reported cases (from 84 to 170) of investment scams related to dating sites from 84 in 2020 in a single year. Bear in mind that these are the numbers that got reported officially, we believe that the actual numbers are much higher than these.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese media reports that between January and April 2022 fake online dating scammed at least 415 people in Taiwan for more than NT$73 million.

This year, New Zealands cybersecurity regulator, CERT NZ claimed that it received 53 reported cases from romance scam victims in the first quarter of 2022. Based on their predictions, should this number continue to grow, by the end of 2022, there could be up to 4,000 New Zealanders that fall into the honey traps of these scammers.

Romance scams do not always appear in the form of romance too. They could be pretending to be a good (platonic) friend on social media who chatted you up and casually mention a “guaranteed profit investment or financial plan”. Therefore, it is important to never trust people easily. It is difficult to know the real intention of someone who approaches you online, thus it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Read about some real-life examples below:

Click here to read more: https://www.wikifx.com/en/newsdetail/202208021774513340.html

Click here to read more: https://www.wikifx.com/en/newsdetail/202207285284384391.html

If you had gone through a similar experience and had difficulty in withdrawing your initial capital or profits, do not believe anything else that they tell you moving forward. Some claim that you just need to deposit some remittance fees, tax payments, and more in order to get your withdrawal approved. Do not pay them any additional money.

Once you have found something fishy about the person and/or the forex broker in question, gather as much evidence as you can and lodge a police report.

You could also seek help from WikiFX through the mediums below: