Thieves could be looking to tap into your emotions to scam you out of your money. Here’s what to watch out for.
SAN ANTONIO — The clock is ticking on your Valentine’s Day purchases.
We’re just days away and stores are unloading flowers, candy and stuffed teddy bears ahead of the lover’s holiday. But the rush of big buying also means a rush of scammers looking to steal your hard-earned cash.
Social media is where many of these scams start. Criminals create fake profiles and websites like most other scams, but with your heart on the line this holiday, your emotions are being targeted so they’re better-positioned to bust your bank account.
“They never meet in person, and they just feel a deep connection online,” said Jason Meza, spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau of South Texas. “It takes somebody else to step forward, usually a sibling or a parent or even a child from an older parent saying, ‘I think my loved one’s been scammed.'”
“Some ask for money or a theft in some other way, when really they do want to steal something from you,” added John Hammon, a principal security researcher with Huntress. “Whether that’s email, whether that’s info, money, whatever the case may be.”
One reason romance scams are up: the increasing cost of Valentine’s Day gifts forcing loved ones to try to find incredible deals. The pressure rises if the victim’s heart has recently been broken.
“They seem to capitalize on people that are isolated,” Meza said, “that are either in a situation where they’ve broken up with somebody or they’re looking for love on a dating app or a profile, and they’ve cloned somebody’s image.”
Red flags you should look out for include if a relationship moving too quickly, if you never meet in person, if they ask for money or if direct you to imposter websites.
And beware of the wrong-number text trap, where a scammer claims to have the wrong number, and as a relationship grows you could be swayed to give personal information to suspicious websites.
Artificial intelligence is also rapidly progressing and increasingly impacting day-to-day life. How is that going to make it easier for scammers in the future as technology keeps progressing?
“We’re seeing new innovation that can really, really make some pictures, make some videos, make even sound or audio pretty lifelike–super realistic and very convincing,” Hammon said. “The scammers especially are taking advantage of that because that almost implicitly builds trust.”
If you or somebody you know has been a victim of a scam, you can report it to the Better Business Bureau’s scam tracker.