Looking for love? FBI warns of online dating scams

PHOENIX - While most of the millions of Americans who visit online dating sites do so to find love or companionship, there are a few that can be called the criminal element.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is warning consumers that criminals use these sites, too, looking to turn the lonely and vulnerable into fast money through a variety of scams.

These criminals—who also troll social media sites and chat rooms in search of romantic victims—usually claim to be Americans traveling or working abroad.

But they actually live overseas. Their most common targets are women over 40 who are divorced, widowed, and/or disabled, but every age group and demographic is at risk.

According to the FBI, here’s how the scam usually works:

You’re contacted online by someone who appears interested in you. He or she may have a profile you can read or a picture that is e-mailed to you.

For weeks, even months, you may chat back and forth with one another, forming a connection. You may even be sent flowers or other gifts. But ultimately, it’s going to happen—your new-found “friend” is going to ask you for money.

So you send money, but the requests won’t stop there. There will be more hardships in which he will ask for your help.

He may also send you checks to cash since he’s out of the country and can’t cash them himself, or he may ask you to forward him a package.

So what really happened?

You were targeted by criminals, probably based on personal information you uploaded on dating or social media sites.

The pictures you were sent were most likely phony lifted from other websites. The profiles were fake, as well, carefully crafted to match your interests.

In addition to losing your money to someone who had no intention of ever visiting you, you may also have unknowingly taken part in a money laundering scheme by cashing phony checks and sending the money overseas and by shipping stolen merchandise (the forwarded package).

What to do?

If you think you have been victimized by a dating scam or any other online scam, file a complaint at the

Internet Crime Complaint Center

Recognizing a dating scam artist.

Your online date may be only interested in your money if:

-Presses you to leave the dating site and use personal email

-Professes instant feelings of love

-Sends you a photo that looks like a picture from a glamour magazine

-Claims to be from the United States but is working or traveling abroad

-Makes plans to visit you but becomes unable to do so because of a tragic event

-Asks for money for a variety of reasons (travel, medical emergencies, hotel bills, hospitals bills for child or other relative, visas or other official documents, losses from a financial setback or crime victimization).