Dear Robin-
I am a widower, I miss my wife everyday but know that it is time to start meeting other people and maybe finding love again. I have heard about online dating sites but my children think that they might not be a good place for me to find love. Are there any cybersecurity issues associated with online dating sites? What do I need to do to make sure that find the right person online?
Don-Virginia
Dear Don-
I am so sorry to hear about the death of your wife. As a good friend said after the unexpected death of his wife " You can't move on but you can certainly move ahead". Everyone deserves love. Dating sites are a wonderful place for baby boomers and seniors to search for love. Unfortunately they are also a place were scammers try to target baby boomers and seniors. The scams that you find on dating and social media sites are called Romance Scams. What happens is a scammer, usually from a country outside of the United States assumes a fraudulent identity and tries to convince you that you have found your perfect match. They research your social media profiles, google you on the internet and even search through the obituaries.....to get information about you . No one is immune from this scam and both men and women are equally victimized.
Here are some red flags:
1. They ask you to send money or gift cards to help them manage an emergency or to purchase a ticket to come and meet you in person
2. Their photo image looks like a very beautiful woman or man.
3. When you ask them questions about their lives their answers can be inconsistent with what they have told you before.
Here is my advice:
Never send or wire money or a gift card to anyone that you have not met in person.
Take it slowly. Ask questions and look for inconsistent answers. Check the person’s photo using your search engine’s “search by image” feature. If the same picture shows up with a different name, that’s a big red flag.
Talk to someone about this new love. And pay attention if your friends or family are concerned or suspect something just isn’t right.
And Use common sense. If something seems too good to be true, it usually is.
Love and Romance help to keep us healthy and happy.
If you would like to learn more check out the my resources on CyberSafeSenior.com
