As a special piece for Valentine's day, I wanted to talk about cryptocurrency romance scams in this post.

Bitcoin romance scam, romance cryptocurrency scam, crypto romance scams, etc. It is known by a lot of names, but this scam is like any other long confidence plays that earns the trust of the victim before scamming him/ her/ them of cryptocurrency. 

This type of scam has started to get federal-level attention that the FBI recently warned against rising crypto romance scams with the upcoming valentine's week. Hence, I decided to write this post.

We have to note that romance scams apply to any fraud-related schemes, not only cryptocurrency. These types of scams have been existing way before cryptocurrency. Online romance scams are nothing different from crypto romance scams, except that the latter uses cryptocurrency.

I tried to look online for an easy way to explain the intricacies of a (romance) scam, but failed. Hence, I organized it on my own and established high-level phases that I think a romance scan undergoes for easy recall. This is based on what information I was able to gather (see References) and analyzed. Please do not consider this as a professional advice, but only as my own opinion. Feel free to take what helpful information you can. But, please check with your local government for formal advice or instructions if you think you have been scammed. 

How Does It Work
First, let us have an understanding of how a romance scam works.

Selection Phase
Scammers will select a potential victim. The ideal target will be those joining dating sites looking for the ideal partner. Although not a prerequisite, it will be a plus if the target is a newbie in the crypto space or an experienced crypto trader, but who is vulnerable to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

If you are on Tinder or similar dating sites, you are a potential target. Scammers already know you are looking for a "match", which gives them a means to engage you. Note that most people already have this social media persona available to the public. Scammers can easily scrape information about their target, model their persona around these before engaging them online. We tend to gravitate towards someone who we can familiarize with or someone we think we can have a deep connection with.

How will you know if someone is a scammer? Your guess is as good as mine. No one is saying to stay away from dating sites. However, be cautious of the "slips of the tongue" and unverifiable claims. These are potential red flags that needs to be checked.

Grooming Phase
The long con begins once a scammer has engaged the target and gained his/ her/ their trust.

Remember these four words (CARE) which is ironic: Confuse, Abuse, Ruse and Excuse.

Scammers will attempt to establish control over you by either confusing you, abusing you, lying to you or making lots of excuses.

• Scammers will confuse you using the reciprocity rule. The reciprocity rule is a scam tactic wherein the target is randomly showered with small gifts or tokens. When someone does you a favor, or is exceptionally nice to you, you will feel obliged to return the favor. Hence, subliminally, you will lean towards complying with the wishes of the scammer later on, even if you feel you should not (confused state).
• If you get suspicious at any stage, the scammer will shift towards verbal abuse or subliminal threats that will evoke guilt and fear (you know what happens when we go to the dark side - Star Wars).
• Lying and making lots of excuses underpins these two scam tactics.

With repetition and inter-mixing of these tactics, you will be groomed into someone who is now emotionally invested to the scammer.

Testing Phase
This is also called a "foot-in-door" technique. The scammer will test the waters by enticing the victim to invest in a cryptocurrency project. At first, the amount will be small, but a combination of scam tactics builds up the invested amount, until its too late.

You should be wary of the following tactics that scammers may use to trick you:

• Visceral influence: The scammer will use human nature, such as our nature to be excited because of potentially huge profit, to evoke FOMO.
• Sense of urgency: The scammer will fashion deadlines and scarcity to evoke a feeling of urgency, further fueling FOMO.
• Social proof: The scammer will show testimonials, feedbacks, and social media accounts to establish the hype around the crypto project. For example, the scammer may show transaction volume to show a lot of utility for the project, but actually it is all wash trading (market manipulation or the investor buying and selling to create misleading activity in the marketplace).
• False sense of control: If a scammer has successfully established a fake crypto project as legitimate to the eyes of the victim, they will suggest the victim to download a mobile application or create an account on a fake website. Since the victim has total control over the access (and the funds), this generates confidence for the victim to further invest. The victim is unaware that the mobile app or website is fake and has a backdoor to siphon out the funds in the opportune time.

If grooming was effective, the victim will be blind to these scam tactics. Instead of doing a DYOR (Do Your Own Research), the victim will blindly invest money on the crypto project because his/ her/ their lover says so, plus with help from falsely presented evidence/ proof.

Another potential scenario is the creation of a crisis, e.g., putting the scammer in (false) danger. I predict other scam scenarios will be continually concocted by scammers in the future. 

Fleecing Phase
If the victim has not managed to come to senses at any time in previous phases, the next phase will be the climax of the scam.

Scammers will setup the victim deeper into the scam by allowing the withdrawal of initial profits. This entices the victim to further invest larger amounts of money. To avoid any second guessing, the scammer may create an illusion of urgency to gain a massive profit, further fueling FOMO.

Post this, the victim will try to withdraw the succeeding profits, and will fail losing the life savings. The scammer will most likely have disappeared by then, concluding his con. At the end of the day, it is not good to be romance-scammed; not only is the money gone, the heart is broken as well.

What To Do

Below are some suggestions to secure yourself from crypto romance scams.

1. Websites are just mediums. A reputable website does not mean reputable users. Reputable dating sites will have as much scammers as in any dating sites. I do not agree with the FBI tip #2, "If you try online dating, only use dating sites with well-known reputations." Tinder, as an example, has lots of scammers (have you watched The Tinder Swindler in Netflix?).

2. If you have a profile information or picture of your date, try to discreetly verify those. Do this early. Once midway into the Grooming Phase, you will be too enamored and blind to understand what you are doing (bewitched). You can also do a quick Google Image search to check if the picture has been used somewhere. Note that scammers can easily grab public photos from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and superimpose their own faces over it (the magic of Photoshop).

3. Separate your relationships from your finances. Establish your own safety walls between these. Do not divulge your financial status. If your lover is insistent, consider it as a red flag that needs to be checked or get out of the relationship outright.

4. Do not put all your eggs in one basket. It is wiser to allocate your investments across multiple investments. There are a lot of scams out there in different forms. Spreading your investment money increases the probability that a part of your savings will be safe in case of a successful scam.

5. Identify vulnerable people within your circle or family and educate them. It may be an old relative or a widow. Whoever it is, if you think they need support, try to inform them about these types of scam and educate them about cryptocurrency safety.

6. Do not download Android or iOS mobile applications from sites other than Google Play Store or Apple App Store. If what you are downloading is not from these sites and is an *.apk file, then that is a potential red flag and you should defer downloading the application. Mobile applications published on official Google and Apple stores goes through security and risk review process reducing the probability of malware apps being published (although some fake apps have seeped into cracks before).

7. Familiarize yourself about cryptocurrency scams by reading about scams online. Read my previous blog post about scams and follow future posts in my GYKGYC corner. Familiarize yourself with the privacy and security settings of online sites you are visiting (maybe another future post).

Conclusion
It is not easy to discuss about matters of the heart. Ultimately, it will be you and you alone who can break the "spell" cast on you, if ever. Prevention and awareness is the cure because once you are caught in the web of lies, it will be hard to get out of it.

Have a happy valentine's with your love and hug your beloved for not being a scammer. 

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Hope I was able to provide some useful insights. If you reached the end of this article, thank you. Please show your support with a like, comment or a tip. It would be greatly appreciated. Please follow Marcusblue Instagram and Twitter pages. Thank you for your support and appreciation.