Florida prime target for catfishing romance scammers, study finds

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    ORLANDO, FL (WESH) — A recent study finds online romance scammers are taking a financial toll during the pandemic.

Florida is a prime target, second only to New York.

The finding comes from SocialCatfish.com President David McClellan, author of the report “Catfishing: A Growing Epidemic During COVID-19.”

“The prime demographic for scammers to target are people age 35 to 65 years old and in Florida there are a lot of retirement communities with people that are established,” McClellan said.

Rebecca D’Antonio of Orlando was not scammed during the pandemic but she is a testimony to what happened after she joined a dating website and, unbeknownst to her, ran into a romance scammer.

“They left me destitute which was kind of an interesting pivot in life that I would have liked to avoid,” D’Antonio said.

She says “they” because the man was actually a group of people using another man’s pictures. The group duped D’Antonio out of $100,000.

“By the end, Discover card was suing me. I was suicidal and had to file for bankruptcy,” D’Antonio said.

“If anybody ever asks you for money, they ask to send you money, they give you a story like they’re in the military, they’re overseas, they’re a contractor, those should always be red flags,” McClellan said.

D’Antonio says other social cues include calling you darling, my queen and other endearments.

“The big two are poor grammar, poor sentence structure, poor speaking but also the fact they will not use your name a lot because they are working so many people,” D’Antonio said.

To avoid becoming a victim, McClellan says never give money, don’t give out your personal information and take things slow.

“This is the perfect opportunity for scammers to go after people,” McClellan said. “We’re at home longer. Our internet habits are changing and you know we have more idle time.”

D’Antonio says you can fight back. She did and was finally was able to buy a home.

She and David say the best thing you can do is educate yourself. Click here for more information on how to protect yourself.

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