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Your "Friend" Could be a Con Artist
Social networking makes it easy to connect with your current social circle, keep up to date with far-away friends, and make new connections online. While there's nothing wrong with making new friends online, you do have to be wary of friend requests from people you don't know.
Con artists are so named because they are experts at gaining your confidence, and your profile can give them the information they need to earn your trust. They then abuse this trust to obtain money, favors or personal information that can leave you in debt, in legal trouble or can do damage to your credit that can take years to fix.
Some scammers may spend months building a rapport with their potential victims. Even if you're chatting with someone you met online some time ago, walk away if something feels off. Here are some warning signs to look out for:
- Requests for loans or monetary gifts
- Early expressions of love or affection
- Requests for you to ship or receive packages
- Professions that make online suitors particularly inaccessible
- Requests for you to cash checks or money orders
- Extensive grammatical, linguistic and spelling errors
- Requests for passwords, PIN numbers or other personal information
- Job offers or business opportunities