so dating websites and apps have changed
the way that people need millions of
singles are looking for love online but
you know if you're not careful scammers
can do more than break your heart they
can trick you out of your hard-earned
money just this week we have told you
about two women who lost thousands of
dollars because they thought they found
their soul mates so on the left is julie
erickson a widow she lost her life
savings more than two hundred and
seventy thousand dollars and just
yesterday Susan Collins contacted us she
says that she lost $8,000 to a con man
that she met playing Words With Friends
now both women say that they thought
they had found the one I thought I had
found someone who loved me and thought I
was wonderful and wanted to spend the
rest of their life with me for some
reason it just he just he just said the
right things to me and it's so sad to
see that but it happens more than anyone
realizes joining me now this morning is
Tom Stevens president of the Better
Business Bureau of Northeast Florida
with ways to stay safe while dating
online and Tom thank you for being here
to appreciation you just gave me some
startling statistics sixty-five thousand
online dating complaints to the tune of
nine hundred and thirty six million
dollars lost in the last three years we
warned people about it all the time but
it keeps happening now there is some
things you can do it's why we're sitting
at the computer here Tom can you walk us
through how you can check if somebody is
really who they say they are there's a
is for color versus imaging and so
basically you go to images google.com
and so you get there and then you have
to search by image so you upload an
image choose a file and obviously you're
going to choose the picture that the guy
sent you this is an example there on the
right or left okay there's the picture
so you upload it you download it on your
desktop right and then you're uploading
it okay that tells you who the guy
really is and you can see that he's
associated with an alt anchor here and
maybe the guy who is telling you he's
using this picture says he is a
businessman in such-and-such so you can
see that this picture does not go with
the profile that the scammer
created so that's a good way right off
the bat to determine if the guy's if
it's a fake profile or not and and it
also if it does lead you to a real
person maybe you could contact them on
Facebook and find out whether or not
they're really the person who you have
been communicating exactly and they may
they may not know they probably don't
know that they're there a photo has been
used being using a scam yeah as we saw
actually in one of these cases also so
tom why do people fall for it so many
because they're real they're real these
scammers are really good about yeah well
conman conman is short for confidence
man and so their expertise is getting
you to believe everything they tell you
and they're telling you things you want
to hear you're maybe you're lonely maybe
you're the type of person who's romantic
they're telling you that that you are
the love of their life and you want to
hear that so it's interesting there's
some things that they do that you've
mentioned grooming grooming right which
is moving them right it could take
anywhere from a couple of weeks to a
year I mean these scam artists are
working 20 25 30 victims all at the same
time so they're there they're willing to
take the time necessary yep to create
that profile and create that trust in
their victim
then there's the sting and then the
fraud continues itself right the sting
is sooner or later they're going to ask
for money and it could be a business
opportunity it could be a medical
emergency it could be anything that
they've built sort of a case they
oftentimes they'll tell you they've got
a young child they're you know widowed
father and the other child has an
emergency that sort of really preying on
someone's kindness is what they're doing
exactly clues that is that this is a
scam we've kind of explained a little
bit on things that you can do but but
what specifically then can one do to
make sure that they don't fall for this
first be honest with yourself I mean
take for me for example I'm an older guy
with more hair on my chin and on my head
so there's very unlikely at some 25 year
old young lady's gonna fall for me so be
honest with yourself so most of these
things happen on social media or dating
sites
so the first tip-off is they're going to
try to get you to move away from that
as quickly as possible start
communicating with emails text phone
calls etc they also will use almost any
excuse to keep from meeting you in
person because they don't want you to
know who they really are
so those a couple of tips there a couple
what about typos and and you know that
they make that might you know if they
say that they're you know from Kansas is
an example in meantime they're there
clearly it appears that maybe English is
not their first language yeah most the
biggest majority of these scammers are
in Nigeria and they are English speakers
because that was a British colony one
time so they've learned English but it's
still it's a stilted English as a
support we're used to using and that
brings up another thing often times
they're working as I said 2025 victims
at the same time they're using the same
script for everybody so you can actually
cut and paste some of that script and
use a Google search and see if that
shows up in somebody else's see if that
shows up online and there's somebody's
complained about it it's such a good
point and you know Tom you have told me
this regardless of the kind of scam that
I think it's Porton is important as we
end on this that you know don't be
afraid to just google someone's name
exactly or a business's nature and see
what pops up because a lot of people air
their complaints online and maybe you'll
find it and that'll keep you from
heartbreak and losing some money thank
you for being here great information -
appreciate it