Hawaii BBB warns dating app users to be careful about sharing their vaccination status #nigeria | #nigeriascams | #lovescams

Posted: Jun 7, 2021 / 05:45 PM HST / Updated: Jun 7, 2021 / 05:45 PM HST

HONOLULU (KHON2) — What’s your status? These days on dating apps, the answer to that might also include whether you’ve been vaccinated or not.

Be careful! It can also end with someone falling victim to a romance scam.

Dating out of a pandemic can be challenging with another threat online when sharing your COVID-19 vaccination card and meeting in person.

“You have to be careful with having a conversation with anybody,” said Roseann Freitas with the Better Business Bureau of Hawaii. “If they don’t want to meet in person, or even a Zoom call, you got to wonder why?”

Like most relationships, scammers first want your trust.

“Some of that goes back to that loneliness,” said Freitas. “They might be divorced or widowed, but of course, how do you meet someone in a pandemic or a lockdown? So of course online they believe what they’re hearing and they trust.”

With new perks coming to several dating apps, the BBB Hawaii says it can cause more confusion.

“Yeah, the feature to tell whether a person is vaccinated or not, like how do they prove that?” said Freitas. “So it’ll be an interesting dynamic, cause I think you will have both sides where they will actually show their card and maybe put them in high risk for identity stolen, then on the flip side you’ll have these con artist out there who will take advantage of that.”

So swipe left? Swipe right? Or stay socially distant?

“The online dating apps are great, and it’s great to meet people that way, however, relationships should not just be online,” said Freitas. “It should be able to get to a phase where you can meet in person, especially with the vaccine, some social distancing and mask wearing.”