Multiple Faces Detected
January 22nd, 2026
As people are enjoying their summers, there are still many single people wishing that they could spend their summer with someone. With the pandemic coming to an end, many people are looking for a companion online with hopes of getting to meet them in person. However, romance scammers are taking advantage of those who are single and using online dating apps to meet the love of their lives. They pretend to be a soulmate to many of these victims in hopes of stealing their hard-earned cash, and it’s becoming harder to notice who these scammers are. That’s why at Social Catfish, we have provided you with 5 hot online dating tips to follow this summer in order to ensure your safety online!
5 Hot Online Dating Tips for the Summer
Online Dating Tip #1: Video Chat or Meet Someone in Person Before Getting Too Serious.
Scammers create fake profiles all the time using stolen images from public profiles and social media influencers. They can voice-over videos and photoshop images to make you believe whatever they want you to believe. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to try and meet someone in person or video chat with them before getting into a serious relationship with them.
If they come up with an excuse as to why they can’t meet you in person or video chat with you, they are most likely a scammer and stole someone else’s images. If their video chat is seriously lagging or their voice doesn’t match the video, there’s also a chance they could be faking the video chat.
Online Dating Tip #2: Never Send Money, Gift Cards, Bitcoin, or Wire Transfer Money to Anyone That You Meet Online.
According to the FTC, reports of gift cards being used in romance scams have increased by 70% in 2020. Romance scammers won’t just ask you to send them money via wire transfer, but they will also ask you to send them an Apple or a Steam gift card. They will also ask you for cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, to pay for any made-up excuses they come up with. This is due to the fact that gift cards and Bitcoin are untraceable methods of payment, making it nearly impossible for victims to get their money back.
They can then take the gift card that you sent them and sell it to a third-party website for 80% of the profits. For example, if they get a $100 gift card, they can get $80 back. This is why it is important to make sure that you don’t send any money in any form to anyone that you are talking to online.
Online Dating Tip #3: Keep Your Personal and Financial Information to Yourself
Scammers will come up with an emergency excuse, such as losing their job or being in the hospital, to steal money and information from their victims. For example, they might claim that they need access to your bank account in order to help pay for whatever emergency they are going through. They also have asked for victims’ personal information in order to participate in an investment opportunity or claim they need to ship something to their house.
They might even need details to your social media profiles to supposedly change your setting to prevent your account from being hacked. Whatever the excuse is, any financial or personal information should be kept to yourself, no matter what. If there really is an emergency, the scammer would contact their family or friends to help them, not someone that they just met online.
Online Dating Tip #4: Block Anyone Reaching Out to You Randomly on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter
If someone is randomly reaching out to you on social media profiles claiming that you are the most gorgeous person they ever saw, they are most likely a scammer. Scammers will steal photos from other public profiles and social media influencers, claiming that they are the person in the photos.
They come up with fake names, a fake bio, and will even purchase a fake friends’ list to fool their victims into thinking they are a real person. They usually add and message victims out-of-the-blue claiming that they want to get to know them better, which a real person wouldn’t do. Therefore, it’s best to only add people you know in real life.
Online Dating Tip #5: Be Wary of Someone Who Claims to Be in the Military or an Oil-Rig Worker
Scammers will claim that their occupation is the military or an oil-rig worker since these are both overseas jobs. It is easy to pretend to be someone you aren’t if you have an overseas job as an excuse as to why you can’t video chat someone or meet them in person. It is also easy to use these occupations as excuses to try and scam their victims out of their hard-earned money.
They can say that they need help getting off the oil rig, they need help with medical bills after a military injury, they need help getting a gun for their services, they need help getting home, and plenty more excuses to get their victims to send them money. The military or oil rig will NEVER require their employees to pay to get back home, for medical bills, or for food. Therefore, if you are talking to someone in the military or an oil-rig worker who isn’t willing to video chat with you or meet you in person while also asking you for money, chances are they are a scammer.
And One More Additional Tip…
Perform a Reverse Search with Social Catfish!
Hopefully these online dating tips helped! At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with after reading these online dating tips. Also, make sure to report any scam that you have been a victim of to the FTC. They will provide you with excellent resources that will help you recover financially and emotionally.
