With Valentine’s just around the corner, don’t let your quest for love blind you to the realities of romance scams day. Internet dating and media that are social managed to make it easier than ever before to meet up brand new individuals in order to find times, but regrettably people create compelling backstories, and full-fledged identities, to fool customers into dropping for somebody who doesn’t even occur.

This type of deception is called “catfishing.” Often a catfisher is probably a person that is lonely behind a fake persona, but usually it will be the first rung on the ladder in a phishing scheme out to take your own personal information and cash.

In line with the Federal Trade Commission in 2018, customers reported losing $143 million to romance scams — a higher total than for almost any other variety of scam reported. The median reported loss had been $2,600 and $10,000 for individuals over 70.