Experts warn: stay vigilant when dating online

While dating sites are where one can find love, it’s important to stay vigilant.

A number of people have fallen victim to scams on different dating sites and many end up losing money.

Often, they only realise this when it’s too late and they’ve actually been scammed.

According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) some terror groups have been targeting South Africans to finance their criminal acts through romance scams.

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There are also reports that online dating scams are used by fraudsters to launder the illicit proceeds of crime.

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In 2021, eight people were arrested in Cape Town in connection with an online dating scam and stealing more than R100 million from victims in various countries.

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A Pietermaritzburg resident, who asked not to be named, said it was easy to fall victim to being defrauded on online dating sites.

She added this can also be emotionally damaging.

Apart from well-known dating sites, Facebook is another place where one finds such scams. The most common one is someone from overseas befriending you and after a few days they ask to send you a gift.
They’d send you all the proof and it will look legit. It’s really important to know what you are getting yourself into when you go on these dating sites and when something is too good to be true.
CEO at Eset Southern Africa, Carey van Vlaanderen, said catfishing, sextortion, phishing and other romance scams are big business for fraudsters. She added that knowing how to spot red flags can mean the difference between being deeply in love and knee-deep in debt.

Van Vlaanderen said online dating or romance scams are financially and emotionally costly as fraudsters exploit people’s vulnerabilities, trust, and feelings of loneliness.

When visiting online dating platforms, be aware of photos that look too good to be true. An image search on Google can help you determine if the photo is authentic or a stolen or stock photo.
Other red flags include requests for private information such as your ID number, declarations of love alarmingly early in the relationship or a request for money to help them out of a situation.
Sextortion is also another form of deception. According to Eset Southern Africa, this begins as a seemingly normal relationship before the scammer pressures the victim into sending intimate photos or videos, which are used as material to blackmail the victim.

Catfishing is another common trick scammers use which lures the victim into a relationship based on the attacker’s fictitious online persona.

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Once the victim is on the hook, the scammer will send messages about being in financial trouble with promises to pay the money back later.

Thandiwe Nsele said she lost close to R15 000 through an online dating site. Nsele said she met a man on one of the dating sites.

I knew him as a doctor and everything checked out. Things started to get serious after weeks of communication. He spoiled me a lot and I think that’s what made me fall for his lies and end up sending him money.
She added that it was hard to believe people who warned her about this man.