Our Maine Street's Aroostook Issue 28 : Spring 2016 | Page 40

Romance Scammers Aren’t
Interested in Earning Your Love
They Want Your Hard-Earned Money
Jane Margesson AARP Maine Communications Director

Throughout the year, many adults will
seek companionship and romance online
by visiting online dating websites. Online
daters need only create a quick profile and the
dating website plays the role of matchmaker,
sorting through millions of other profiles to
find Mr. or Ms. Right. While many clients
are honest and forthright, online dating
sites are also rife with fraudsters looking
for individuals to manipulate with false
promises. If this sounds like an unlikely
ploy, consider this: According to the FBI,
Americans lost $82 million to online dating
fraud in the second half of 2014 alone.

law enforcement in the state to crack down
on scammers. More broadly, the AARP
Fraud Watch Network (FWN), a national
initiative, is taking a pro-active stance,
urging dating websites themselves to take
commonsense steps to fight back against
criminals who are stealing hearts and bank
accounts. We’ll be delivering petitions to
the top online dating websites – Match.
com, eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, Zoosk,
OK Cupid, SeniorPeopleMeet and Our
Time – urging them to do more to keep
these heartless criminals off their sites and
educate their users on how to spot and avoid
romance scammers and what to do if they are
Of note is the fact that online dating sites victimized. To sign our petition, please go
that are faith-based are often a favorite target visit www.aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork and
for scammers. Judy Shaw, Administrator click on “sign our petition to fight fraud.”
for the Maine Office of Securities, explains:
“Try as they may, online dating sites do In the meantime, here are 10 ways you can
not succeed in keeping scammers from spot a romance scammer:
posing as legitimate people looking for
love. When the dating site is faith-based, Watch out if you “meet” someone who:
that adds the ability to use mutual love for • wants to leave the dating site immediately
God as an additional connection to tug at
and use personal email or instant
the emotional heart strings. People, often
messaging to communicate with you
women, have lost hundreds of thousands of • makes several spelling and grammar
dollars on these sites.”
mistakes when communicating
• sends a personal photo that looks like
This is what is called “affinity fraud” – we
something from a glamour magazine
trust people who we can relate to and who • professes love too quickly
we believe share the same morals and beliefs • claims to be from the U.S., but is traveling
as we do.
or working overseas
AARP Maine is working with agencies and • makes excuses about not being able to
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SPRING 2016