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Mary was lonely. The recently divorced mom of three was ready to dip her toe back into the Orlando, Florida, dating scene and decided to try her luck with a matchmaking app. She soon met Todd.
Their relationship grew via online exchanges and phone calls. They never met. When Todd asked Mary for money after a couple of months, she gladly sent it. And she kept on paying, to the tune of $450,000 over the next four years.
But Todd wasn’t the committed boyfriend Mary thought he was. In fact, he didn’t even exist.
This is a real-world example of a romance or confidence scam. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reports this type of fraud driven by “social engineering”—manipulating people to take advantage of them—cost victims $956 million in 2021.
But that figure is surely a vast understatement. Why? Because it can be embarrassing to admit you’ve been duped.
I’ve seen many highly successful and creative scams as the senior fellow for threat research at Agari by HelpSystems. Here’s a look at common cons to watch for, and my advice on how you can protect yourself.
Personal Scams
Deception. Manipulation. Fear. Trust. Love. Humiliation. Online scammers know their psychology and how to use it to get victims to pay.
Scams evolve over time, and no segment of the population is…
