Image of suspicious message and profile on Instagram. Courtesy photo

By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
Los Alamos
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

Don’t be too quick to accept that friend request, you could be in for more than you bargain for. One of my social media accounts is public, so anyone can follow me and I’ll usually follow them back. Usually it’s pretty harmless, but if that person immediately messages me, I take it as a huge red flag, and I will examine their account. A lot of the time it’s just spam, but in this case it looks like it could have been the start of a romance scam. Not on my watch, jerk.

Red flags right off the bat- “your profile caught my eye”, I find you “captivating”. Nobody talks like that in real life, and this screams scammer to me. I went to check out his profile to confirm my theory.

Romance scammers love to steal pics off the internet of actual people doing cool things, and make fake profiles to scam people with. In this case, he looks like a suave, well to do jet setter. Look, he’s on a yacht! And with an airplane! He’s wearing a suit! Wow! And he’s only here for “great company and better conversations”. Looking at his follows vs. followers he’s got 5 followers and 76 he’s following. Chances are the follows are mostly fake accounts. One thing you can do with these is reverse search the images on Google image search to see if they are copying known accounts or what, but with AI technology that doesn’t always work. My gut instinct here was that he was a scammer, so I blocked him. How do you block someone on Instagram? See screenshots below.

Tadah, problem solved.

What is a romance scammer? A romance scammer is a criminal who creates a fake online profile/persona to create a romantic relationship with a victim and then manipulates them emotionally and financially to extort money. Often these scams start on social media or dating apps, the scammer will use compelling stories to gain trust, and then ask for money for various urgent, made-up needs, eventually leading to major financial loss for the victim.

Signs of a romance scammer?

• Moving off dating sites: They will try to move conversations to other platforms like WhatsApp or direct texts, to avoid scrutiny of the dating app.
• Vague or minimal profiles: Their online profiles might have few pictures, little personal information, or limited number of connections on other social media platforms.
• Inconsistent stories: Their background story may be vague, frequently change, or have other inconsistencies.
• Poor grammar/spelling: Despite claiming to be a native speaker, their writing may contain poor grammar and spelling, or just oddly phrased sentences.
• Refusal to meet/video call: They will make excuses for why they can’t meet in person or video call you.
• Requests for Money: They will ask for money for “urgent” reasons and demand specific payment types (e.g. wire transfer, venmo, etc.), they may offer you an “amazing” investment deal, etc.

If you get a strange friend request, immediately followed by an off-putting message, just save yourself the trouble and block them before you have to deal with anything like this! Friends online aren’t always what they seem, and they could cost you or a loved one everything. Stay safe online and block those jerks!

Editor’s note: Rebecca Rutherford works in information technology at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Screenshots of process to block someone on Instagram. Courtesy photo