Have you ever been catfished? Or maybe you fell in love with someone over the internet and they ended up scamming you out of thousands of dollars.. It happens more often than you think. In fact it happens in the state of California more frequently than any other state in the country.
According to Social Catfish, a total of $6.9 billion dollar was lost due to online scams in 2021 in the country. And who knows, that number could be even higher considering a lot of people are too embarrassed to come forward and admit they’ve been scammed.
In 2022 alone, over 67 thousand Californians have been a victim of online scams. A total of $1,227,989,139 has been lost.
So here’s what you can do to avoid being romantically scammed, according to Social Catfish.
- Do not give money to anyone you have never met in person.
- Do not give out personal information if you have never met in person
- Perform a reverse search using photos, emails, phone numbers, and addresses to verify if the person or entity you are speaking to online is who they say they are.
- 5 big red flags include poor grammar, refusing to video chat, being in the military, working overseas, asking to be paid in gift cards or cryptocurrency.