UNDATED -- Online match making is more popular than ever, but we discovered some risks you need to know about. In his Fact Finder report, KRCG's Brandon McElwain has the story of one mid-Missouri woman who’s Mr. Right turned into Mr. Wrong.
"Did I ever expect I would be a victim of a romance scam? Never!" says “Hope”.
They promise to help you find your soul mate, to meet someone real. Statements that lure more than 60 million people a month to online dating sites. Hope was one of them.
Instead of finding love, she found a date with deceit. Hope thought she'd struck up a relationship with a contractor from Ohio. They corresponded over the Internet for six months. That's when the scam started.
The man told Hope his job required that he work in Nigeria a while for his family business. He claimed the checks his employer used to pay him could not be cashed there, so he asked Hope if she could cash the checks, and wire him the money.
She did, and a few days later the checks bounced and she lost the money. "You want to be loved so badly that often times your heart overrides your minds ability to think clearly," she says. "This is the worst type of crime. Not only are they stealing people lives, but they are playing with your emotions and stealing their hearts. It’s just awful.”
Barbara Sluppick says she's heard similar stories, with similar endings. That's why she runs anonline forummore than 4,000 members strong. The purpose of the site is to out the scammers.
"There is about $18 billion a year being sent out of our country through these scams every year," says Sluppick.
It might sound hard to believe, but she's right. Brandon checked the facts and discovered $15 billion a year is lost to online dating scams and the numbers are climbing.
Andy Anderson works for the Boone County Sherriff's Department and says many scammers chose the online route because it's so difficult to get caught. That also means it is difficult for a law enforcement officer to do anything about it. "It is extremely difficult, especially outside the US, because we do not have contacts in many of those countries," says Anderson.
How do you know if your Mr. Right has turned out to be Mr. Wrong?
Here are some red flags:
- Does the picture of your online pal look professionally done?
- Does he or she have a strong command of the English language?
- And the biggest give-away, was he or she forced to go overseas?
"I am on a mission a crusade to educate myself and other to let them know there are people out there that can help then," says Hope.
With Hope's help, would be scammers won't be able to inflict pain on those looking for love online.
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