What are crypto romance and dating scams?

If you’ve just signed up to an online dating site to meet the love of your life, you should probably read this!

Just like you, there are millions of people looking for their cyber sweetheart on the internet but instead of finding love, they find themselves heartbroken and swindled out of their money.

What is a romance scam?

Romance scams are all about building trust with you over a long period before the scammer is able to convince you to send them crypto. Most cases involve the scammer faking a romantic connection with you, but this scam could also take the form of an online friendship.

How to spot a romance scammer

Romance scammers use emotional manipulation and play on your basic need for human connection. They create fake profiles on dating websites or social media that reflect a life of luxury, then they reach out to you with messages of affection, telling you exactly what want to hear.

These scammers will check in with you several times a day via chat, voice notes, or phone calls - calling you ‘baby’ and leading you to believe that you’re in a romantic relationship. To make their identities more believable, some scammers might even send pictures of their meals, what they were doing, or where they are.

In most cases, they’ll present themselves as wealthy people living overseas who got rich through crypto. They appear to be high spenders living a luxurious life, leading you to believe that money is not a problem for them.

After they’ve created a bond with you, they will subtly weave crypto trading into conversations to entice you into investing or sending money for various expenses.

Here are some red flags to look out for:

• The relationship moves fast

• They lure you off the dating site to instant messaging or social media early on

• They prefer chatting instead of video calling

• They cannot do video calls because their phone or laptop’s camera is broken

• They promise to visit and cancel at the last minute due to an emergency

• They ask you to send money until their investments pay out

• They instruct you to use specific payment methods (wire transfers or crypto sends)

• They persistently offer to help you buy and trade crypto

• They ask you to share personal information

• They ask you to commit financial fraud on their behalf

How to avoid falling victim to a romance scammer

• Set up a video call from the start and communicate via video call regularly

• Scammers take advantage of people who do not understand crypto

• Don’t send money to people you’ve met online

• Don’t allow them to pressurise you into sending crypto or money for crypto investments

• Don’t share personal details such as ID numbers, account numbers or passwords, etc

• Don’t send compromising pictures that can be used as blackmail later

• Analyse their presence on the internet

• If you feel suspicious, stop communications immediately by blocking them