How to Tell if Someone is Scamming You Online

More than $5.8 billion was lost to romance scams in 2021. Internet scams are a growing problem in society and many people have no idea about the financially and emotionally devastating impact these scams can have on their victims. But luckily, there is a way of spotting and avoiding online scams, and in this article, we’ll reveal the signs that you may be talking to an online scammer.

Signs You’re Talking to a Scammer

1. They move you to a messaging app: If a scammer reaches out to you through social media and then asks you to move to a messaging app like Telegram, WhatsApp, or Facebook Messanger. The reason these messaging apps are so popular among scammers is that it is difficult to trace their crimes back to them
2. Their social media doesn’t have many followers: Many fake social media accounts that scammers make are created for the sole purpose of scamming people online. Because of this, many of these accounts don’t have many people following them. More specifically, these accounts tend to be following more people than are following them, despite their high-quality content.
3. They ask you for payment upfront: Depending on the type of scam the person has in mind, they may ask you to pay for their services before they deliver them. This is because once they get you’re money, they’ll run off with it, or make excuses for why they need you to send more.

How to Spot a Romance Scam

A romance Scam is a special type of scam where scammers create fake profiles in order to engage people in conversation and sink them into a fake relationship. They do this through lies and made-up stories. These romance scams resemble the classic “Nigerian prince scam” where the scammer claims to be wealthy, but has fallen into a situation where they need you to send them your money. They will then claim that they will promise repayment plus a large fee for lending them money. But of course, once you send the money, you’ll probably never see it again. These types of scams typically have unique signs that give them away.

1. The person looks like a model but only has a few followers: Because these scammers steal photos from influencers to create fake accounts, they will definitely have fewer followers than the influencers they stole the pictures from. So it is not uncommon for a person to have supermodel looks but only a handful of followers.
2. They live out of the country: Romance scammers will always claim to be out of the country. The reason for their absence depends on the persona they have adopted.
3. They tell you they love you way too fast: One of the most common ways for scammers to get you to send them money is to make you believe that they have fallen in love with you.
4. They keep on flaking on you: Romance scammers will often make promises to you because they want you to keep sending them money. They will tell you that if you just send one more payment to them they will fly to where you are to meet you.

How to Tell If Someone Is a Scammer

If you’re talking to someone who you believe might be a scammer, the best way of telling whether or not this is the case is by running a reverse image search. To run a reverse image search, all you need to do is upload a photo of a person into the search bar below. This is one of the fastest ways of finding out if you’re the target of a scam.

Scams Can Happen To Anyone

Business Wire says, “If it seems like you’re receiving more spam than normal, you probably are. Seventy-four percent of Americans say they have received a scam text so far this year, while as many as 83% have received a scam phone call, according to Allstate Identity Protection’s (AIP) first quarter Identity Fraud in Focus report. Of those, nearly half report receiving 11 or more spam attempts via text or call every week” (The Globe and Mail, 2022). What does this mean? Every day, each person in the USA is bombarded with opportunities to fall prey to a scammer’s wiles. Federal Trade Commission Data also states that 2021 saw 2.8 million scam reports and $5.8 billion lost in successful scam frauds (2022). This issue is widespread and will not see a decline later on.  

Financial Consequences Are Severe

But suppose you do fall prey to a scam. Surely it can’t be that bad, right? Wrong. As mentioned above, $5.8 billion lost to fraud in 2021 is nothing to sneeze at. There’s a reason that “[t]he Revised Code of Washington 9A.90.100 states that this crime is a class C felony punishable by up to five years in jail and a fine up to $10,000” (Treyz, n.d.). Additionally, just this March, there was $95,137,362 lost in damages, most of them to investment-related scams, with dating and romance scams behind by a wide margin (Scamwatch, 2022). Given all this information, it’s safe to say that falling prey to a scam is no walk in the park. It can cost you your livelihood and sometimes even your identity. And the consequences of financial ruin can devastate people from all backgrounds. 

Mental Health Issues Resulting From Scams

The third danger of scams is the harm to one’s mental health. This should seem intuitive, seeing as how financial ruin leaves everyone in a shoddy mood – to put it mildly. However, Chris Lees thinks that scams and mental health might be part of a vicious cycle. “We found that people with mental health problems are three times more likely than the rest of the population to have fallen victim to an online scam. This increased risk means that a majority (61%) of online scam victims have also experienced a mental health problem” (Money and Mental Health Policy Institution, 2022). So not only do scams lead to mental sickness and stress on your brain, but stress on your brain can also make you more vulnerable to scams in the first place. This means that we must be extra-cautious whenever we venture online. 

The Solution

So, let’s say we’ve convinced you that online scams are a real danger to you, your money, and your mental health. So, what are the solutions to this problem? The good news is that you can do a vast array of things to protect yourself online. The bad news is that there are so many that it would take us forever to list them all! With this in mind, we think Social Catfish’s reverse image search might be your best bet to secure yourself against scams and warn others of potential danger. And you might find it’s pretty easy to use, too.  

All you have to do is find the image of the person who’s contacted you using our reverse image search engine. From there, Social Catfish will compare this picture against billions of social records, images, and other data to find out all we can about the person who uses it. You might even find that they’re using an image of someone famous to try and dupe people. Yet not all hope is lost – you should be able to warn people about this scam and who’s involved in it so neither you nor another person falls prey to the scheme. Moreover, you’ll be able to report the scammer to law enforcement more efficiently, which is essential to preventing more of these manipulations. 

Scams are scary. They can damage you, your money, and your livelihood. But you don’t have to worry about that anymore with Social Catfish’s reverse image search feature. Finding out all you can about the deceiver means you can rip the wool off your eyes and prevent dangerous costly pitfalls. If you’re interested in giving our reverse image search a feature, go to https://wp.socialcatfish.cloud/scamfish/how-to-run-a-reverse-image-search/ and insert a file today. Your online safety matters to us, and we’re here to help you every step of the way!