Valentine’s Day is a day of love – and scams

In a typical romance scam, fraudsters create fake online profiles using someone else's photos. They profess their love early on, even though they have never met you. They encourage you to communicate with them via email, phone or IM, rather than through the online dating site, so that the dating service won’t have a record of the conversation. — TNS

ATLANTA: Many singles looking for romance have turned to online dating sites, especially now that the pandemic has led many to make socialising a virtual-only activity.

Unfortunately, scammers are taking advantage of the situation by perpetrating romance scams, and they have been largely successful. In fact, even before the pandemic hit, tens of thousands of people were falling victim to these online scams each year.