Love scams month

It is the month of love. Unfortunately, it’s also the month of scams. Online love scams, that is.

According to the police this is usually the month when online scammers step up looking for victims realizing that with February 14 or Valentine’s Day approaching, many are swept up by the craze to have someone to share that special day with.

You would be surprised how many people still fall for such scams. As narrated in a national news program recently, a man was duped by his out-of-town “girlfriend” whom he connected with online. She asked for bus fare to come and see him in Manila. After he sent the money he never heard from her again.

He got off lucky; a woman went as far as to pawn her family lot to send money to her “foreign boyfriend” she also met online. Of course, after receiving the money he disappeared.

Other scammers invite their “significant others” to invest in a certain business, but money isn’t the only objective of scammers. Some “loved ones” ask for explicit photos that can be used to blackmail that person later on; the choice of scam to be employed is almost as varied as the choices of gifts we can give to loved ones on Valentine’s Day.

It’s easy to laugh at cases like these, but when they happen to us or to people we know it becomes a different story.

So how do we prevent ourselves from a heartbreak that’s even worse than the usual? It helps to be a bit suspicious of someone looking for love, then a little bit more. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If the image the person is using looks to good, it’s probably a stolen image. If your interests align too perfectly, he/she is probably pretending. If they move too fast, they will likely leave as fast.

The typical heartbreak experienced when a relationship ends is bad enough, but if it comes with the fact that you were also gypped financially that makes it even worse.