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FBI Warns of Online Dating Scam

By: Evan Onstot
Updated: February 14, 2013
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There is a new scam to watch out for-- just one of hundreds if not thousands that online predators use to target people looking for love online.

The FBI blogged about the extortion scam recently, saying a person would meet someone online and would develop a relationship-- often leading to sexually suggestive chats, texts and even photos.  The person would then get a phone call or text from the scammer, saying their name, information, pictures and correspondence had been put on a cheater website like cheaterregistry.com.  The only way to remove the information is to pay the scammer a sum of money, usually around $100.

The FBI calls it a simple case of online extortion.

For more of the sophisticated methods used in online scams, and how to best protect yourself, click on the video.

There is a website that tracks online dating scams called romancescams.org.  By 2011, the website reported more than $15 million dollars scammed or stolen from people using online dating deceit. 

The website also includes a quiz that you can take yourself to help determine if the person you are dating is a scam artist. 

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