September 27, 2023
As we are still staying at home as much as possible due to the coronavirus pandemic and following our state’s social distancing laws, we often wonder how we can entertain ourselves when we are bored. We think that social media might do the trick, but then realize you’ve seen every single post you have scrolled through since the day began. You can binge-watch the latest shows on your video streaming platform… if you haven’t already binge-watched everything that was on it already. Your mind starts to wander until you realize you haven’t checked out the dating scene in a while. You are a little lonely since you aren’t quarantining with anyone and haven’t really interacted with many human beings since the coronavirus started. You download a dating app and begin swiping left or right, but don’t realize the amount of catfish you just potentially swiped right to. This is why Nigerian romance scams have gone up during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Which States Have the Most and Least Catfishing Victims?
- Dating App Usage Skyrocketing in 2020 Due to COVID-19
- Watch Exclusive Interview With a Nigerian Romance Scammer Who Revealed His Secrets
- Watch Exclusive Interview with Victim Betty Jean Who Was Left Homeless Due to a Romance Scam During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- Romance Scammers Come Up with Clever Ways to Scam Their Victims During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- How to Avoid Nigerian Romance Scams During COVID-19
Which States Have the Most and Least Catfishing Victims?
According to the FTC, $201 million dollars was lost due to romance scams in 2019, which was a 40% increase from $143 million in 2018. This was the number one most-costly type of scam in America. The chart below shows which states have the most romance scam victims according to the most recent FBI IC3 data.
Dating App Usage Skyrocketing in 2020 Due to COVID-19
The above state-level data shows romance scams were a huge problem before the pandemic, and studies now show the problem will be exponentially worse in 2020.
According to eMarketer, the percentage of dating apps downloaded in 2019 compared to now will have increased by 18.4% with a predicted 26.6 million users. According to Statista, 31% of the people who took the survey have said that they have used dating apps somewhat more now than before the quarantine.
When you consider the increase of dating app users from 2019 to 2020, the $201 million victims lost in 2019 is unfortunately projected to skyrocket in 2020 as the pandemic continues to soar.
The Better Business Bureau saw a 35% to 40% increase in online scams to the PlainsCapital Bank fraud manager’s customers since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. If this was reported at just one bank, imagine how many more financial institutions are seeing an increase in romance scams since COVID-19 began.
Watch Exclusive Interview With a Nigerian Romance Scammer Who Revealed His Secrets
When a Nigerian romance scammer is trying to get to know you, they are also trying to get to know several other people as well. Because of this, it’s hard to keep track of the numerous conversations being had all at once as they deploy their Nigerian romance scams. To solve this issue, these romance scammers have created what is called a playbook to copy and paste from, so they don’t have to come up with the sweet things they say to you on their own. Instead, they can copy and paste a conversation starter or a sweet message that will sweep you off your feet and allow you to trust them.
To be able to tell if someone is using the romance scammer’s playbook on you, pay attention to the messages they send you. Are they overly sweet? Do they make you blush and your heart race? Are they simple little phrases that ask you about your day? Do they have a bunch of grammatical errors? If you answered yes to all of these, chances are the person you are talking to is a romance scammer copying and pasting the messages he is supposed to.
Watch Exclusive Interview with Victim Betty Jean Who Was Left Homeless Due to a Romance Scam During the Coronavirus Pandemic
In this heartbreaking story, we talked to Betty Jean who was going through a rough time after being scammed. She asked her friends and family for money and had sold her car and house to pay the romance scammer, thinking that it was true love and that he would buy her a nicer car and house. However, after she lost everything she started to realize that he was most likely a Nigerian romance scammer.
For the last 3-4 months, she keeps trying to tell him how she knows he’s a romance scammer but denies it every single time, saying he still loves her. Because she sold her house to give the scammer money, she currently lives in a tent. She became super depressed because of this situation and has even tried to overdose. The doctors had to prescribe her anti-depressant medication.
She met someone else online and has been able to video chat with him on a daily basis. She has told him about her past of being scammed, and he reassures her he would never do that to her. He has not asked for money yet, and she doesn’t think he ever will.
Romance Scammers Come Up with Clever Ways to Scam Their Victims During the Coronavirus Pandemic
- They are telling their victims they can’t go and see them due to the pandemic. They state they don’t want to get you sick or there is limited travel where they are from due to the pandemic. However, this isn’t the case. The real reason is that he is lying about his identity to you and isn’t who he says he is.
- They claim that they have a COVID-19 related emergency and need money fast. These excuses range from getting sick and needing money for treatments to running out of food and water so they need money to get more supplies. These reasons are all lies, no one that you are talking to on the internet is going to rely on someone they just met to get them out of an emergency situation. They most likely have a family and nearby friends they could ask, so why would they need to rely on you? This just goes to show that this is all a scam.
- They use the fact that you are lonely and isolated in your house to win you over by saying sweet things. If you are stuck in your house with limited contact with your loved ones, then someone else’s sweet words can win you over, especially when they are confessing their undying love for you. Beware of someone who says overly sweet things to you right away that are too good to be true.
- They use the extra time you have during the coronavirus quarantine to chat with you more and move faster within the relationship. With the extra time, you now have quarantining at home during the pandemic, scammers have more time to pretend to get to know you. This will allow you to build trust with them faster and allow them to move the relationship along at a quicker rate. Beware if your relationship begins to move too fast.
- They don’t want to video chat due to having limited access to a Wi-Fi network during the coronavirus pandemic. The oldest excuse in the book… they can’t video chat with you because their video camera is supposedly “broken” or they don’t have the best access to Wi-Fi. These are all VERY FAKE reasons. The real reason they don’t want to video chat with you is that they are pretending to be the person you see in the pictures and aren’t actually that person.
How to Avoid Nigerian Romance Scams During COVID-19
- Don’t give anyone you meet online any money, no matter what the reason is. If someone was really in danger or in need of money, they have their family and nearby friends to rely on and wouldn’t be relying on someone they just met online to help them through the emergency.
- Don’t give anyone online your personal information. Scammers can use this information to commit identity fraud. This means that they would steal your information to apply for credit cards and gain information from your bank to steal your finances.
- If someone is trying to rush the relationship, try taking it slower than they want and see how they react. A scammer would be pushy in trying to get you to fall in love with them. If they are pushy about getting you to fall in love with them, then something isn’t right and they are only with you to trick you with Nigerian romance scams.
- Avoid forming a relationship with someone who won’t video chat with you or meet you in person. This usually means they are trying to hide their true identity since you only know them as the picture they gave you. What they don’t want you to know is they actually stole that picture from someone else and that it isn’t really them in the picture.
- Compare what they are saying to the playbook to see if it matches at all. If what the person sent you matches word-for-word to the text in the playbook or is similar to it, then that is a major red flag. This means they are probably copying and pasting everything they are telling you from a scammer’s playbook and will try to steal your money later on.
And Lastly… Social Catfish is Here to Help You
If you have any bit of their information, Social Catfish can help you figure out the true identity of the scammer if you think you have been a victim of Nigerian romance scams. You can use our reverse search toolbar to figure out who you are really talking to if you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image. This will allow you to be able to tell if you are talking to a real person or if it’s just another romance scammer.
Also, if you have a similar story to Betty Jean and have been a victim of Nigerian romance scams, we would love to hear from you! You can share your story with us at ShareMyStory@socialcatfish.com for a chance to be featured in our future YouTube video or blog post. This will give you the opportunity to educate our audience on the experiences you faced so that no one else will ever have to go through the pain of being scammed.
