The Cybersecurity Evangelist: Ep 16 – Everybody Loves Love! PSA on Romance Scams – Why Scammers Love Love Too!

By Jennifer Lyn Walker, The Cybersecurity Evangelist

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On Episode 16, The Cybersecurity Evangelist talks about love! Well, more specifically romance scams. This is a PSA on romance scams in honor of February – a little late, but romance scams happen all year long.

I managed to keep this episode short and sweet! And before jumping too far into romance scams, I talked about how, at the heart, (no pun intended) romance scams are a type of social engineering attack. With social engineering really being the premise of TCE – addressing the human side of cyber/cybersecurity – it seemed like a good time to delve a little more into what social engineering is (and what it isn’t).

I invite you to tune in to hear more about fraud reports and financial losses due to romance scams, red flags that could indicate someone you know is caught in a romance scam, and some common and practical steps to defeating romance and other types of social engineering based scams.

Finally, I encouraged listeners to report romance scams, the importance of doing so, and a few organizations to report to, including to at least one of the following:

  • The online app and/or social media platform where the initial contact was made
  • The FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
  • The FBI (1-800-CALL-FBI (225-5324) or visit ic3.gov)
  • The financial institution (or credit card company) if the victim has sent money (or a cash advance) – preferably as soon as possible.
Image via the National Cyber Security Alliance Romance Scam Campaign,
shared via the Alaska State Troopers, @akstatetrooper, on Twitter.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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