Romance scams increase during the pandemic
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- Finding a match has become as easy as pulling out your phone or computer and swiping through pictures, but you don't always know who is really on the other end.
Fraudsters are taking the relationship off the apps to text or email and then asking for money.
"Usually what happens is scammers take advantage of your trust on a legitimate dating website or platform. What they’re doing is creating these fake profiles so they’re trying to lure you to build this relationship with them, build trust," said Adah Rodriguez with the Better Business Bureau.
According to the FBI in Denver, between Colorado and Wyoming, there are been 200 victims between October and January. The total losses add up to about $32 million.
The Better Business Bureau says these numbers are increasing because of the pandemic and more people being online.
"Another piece, of course, was that there were physical restrictions in place, so people were unable to meet people at bars and restaurants so they were going towards using more of these dating sites and various opportunities for scammers," said Rodriguez.
Here in Colorado Springs, the number of romance scams went up 13 percent in 2020 and by more than 10 percent in 2021.
"Now in 2022, just in the last month and a half, we’ve seen double the numbers compared to the same period last year," said Rodriguez.
Experts say to avoid being scammed be wary of profiles that are too good to be true, research the person's name, ask as many questions as possible and watch out for incorrect grammar or spelling.
"Oftentimes these scammers are using auto-generated responses to you or they’re from another country and essentially English could be their second language. That doesn’t always mean they're always a scammer, but we just encourage you to look a little bit deeper," said Rodriguez.
