There are numerous ways to check the authenticity of someone on a dating site so you don’t fall for a romance scam, according to HackRead. You should always be cautious when interacting with people you’ve never met in real life, but this holds especially true for dating sites. Romance scammers are particularly manipulative and know how to get their hooks into people for long-term, costly scams.
The first thing you should do before even talking to someone is right click on their photo and perform a reverse image search on Google. Most fraudsters recycle other people’s photos, so if their profile picture pops up in multiple other places online, they’re almost certainly trying to scam you.
The next step is to check their social media accounts for signs of inauthenticity. Keep in mind, however, that these accounts can easily be faked and shouldn’t be taken as proof of legitimacy.
If you’re thinking about taking someone seriously or planning on meeting them in person, you can do a public records search or perform a background check on them. Not only can this expose them if they’re a fraudster, it can also make you aware of any indicators that they could be dangerous.
Even if all of these check out, you should still exercise caution and be on the lookout for signs that they might not have good intentions. In particular, you should never send money to someone you’ve met online. Even if you’ve been in contact with someone for months, you should assume they’re a scammer the moment they ask for money. Romance scammers are patient and invest a lot of time in gaining their victims’ trust.
Romance scams generally rely on victims who have been convinced that the scammer is who they say they are, so it’s critical that you identify the scam early on. At the very least, you need to be willing to drop them once they’ve started requesting money. New-school security awareness training can give your employees a healthy dose of skepticism so they can stay safe online in both their professional and personal lives.
HackRead has the story: https://www.hackread.com/how-to-spot-online-dating-scam-and-its-never-ending-fakery/