Falling in love should be the happiest time of your life.
Unfortunately, for thousands of people around the world who fall prey to romance tricksters, it can end up in significant personal and financial loss. According to Scamwatch, in Australia alone, romantic scams have cost us over $131 million.
Falsifying your identity and duping someone into romance and love, then taking advantage of them
is the lowest act a person can commit. For romance scammers, it is big business and many achieve a wealthy lifestyle while leaving multiple broken hearts and bank accounts in their wake!
So, you’ve recently met someone online and seen them a couple of times. You are physically
attracted to them and you seem to have a lot in common. But how do you protect yourself and get
reassurance that this is the real deal and worth pursuing?
A Quick Look to give you peace of mind
Quick Look is a new Australian-first service that checks for flags against past scammers to keep
dating fun and safe. With an online ALERT space to report scams that we verify and add to our
databases, covering everything from identity fraud, to assault or domestic violence, monetary
scams, or even just to confirm that someone is not married and secretly living a double life! It is our
mission to restore confidence in dating, prevent heartbreaking deceptions, and ensure people can
truly find the partner of their dreams, not nightmares!.
There’s a lot at stake
Despite Scamwatch figures in the millions of dollars scammed from Australians looking to find their
match, the truth is the impact is far higher. This type of crime and scam is the most under-reported
in Australia, with many victims feeling embarrassed, fearful, or just not sure if anything can be done,
meaning they often keep these incidents to themselves. Yet romance and date scams rely on this so
they can continue to wreak havoc with people’s emotions and play on their vulnerabilities – over
and over again.
With the huge growth in popularity of online dating sites, it’s never been more important to report
these fraudsters and ensure they can’t hurt others in the future.
The sad truth is, losing financially is not always the worst of it. With numerous unreported acts of
physical violence and emotional abuse, your physical safety is also at risk. It may not be enough to
trust your instincts in these situations, with many scammers presenting a “too good to be true”
persona that will have you believing anything they say. Remember they often do this for a living so
are professionals and can deceive even the most cautious among us.
Since COVID, many of us have been more isolated and lonelier than ever before, which may have
contributed to the increase in these type of scams, as we all look to reconnect with people. And with
technology providing many easy ways to socialise at our fingertips, we are exposed and vulnerable
to many potential scams. No matter how old you are, or how wary you are, we can all be victims.
So before you commit to a new relationship, or even think about that 4 th date, consider taking a
Quick Look at your new love interest to be sure they are who you believe them to be. It’s such an easy
way to prevent future heartbreak and worse! And if you are in two-minds about whether it’s the
right thing to do, consider how much more energy and commitment you can put into a relationship
that gets a GREEN flag, and how happy you will be that your love is TRUE!
