The Federal Bureau of Investigation has its hands full these days, investigating a variety of serious threats in New Jersey, including terrorism, organized crime and gang activity.

Recently however, they’ve seen a rise on another type of illegal activity – romance scams.

According to New Jersey FBI special agent Suzanne Beck, romance scams involve people who meet on dating websites and begin apparent relationships. The scammer will claim there’s some kind of drama or emergency.

“Typically there is a short-term relationship and then the individual has some kind of catastrophe happening and they need money to get them out of debt or get them out of prison or whatever kind of bad situation they are explaining to the victim,” she said.

Beck added “the FBI is concerned about this because people are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

She said in some romance scams, the people involved in the relationship don’t ever actually even meet, “but they engage frequently over text messaging, over the phone, over email.”

So who gets suckered into giving money to someone they don’t ever meet?

“The perpetrators will usually focus on people who have either recently been in a divorce, or lost a loved one and really longing for a romantic relationship, despite never meeting one another,” she said. "Usually the victims are going through some kind of life change, you know whether it be divorce or a change in career. The perpetrator is taking advantage of someone who is looking for a relationship and compassion.”

Beck said victims are all ages, but most tend to be females.

“I’ve seen younger girls who are just getting out of college. I’ve seen older women,” she said.

The bottom line, said Beck, is if you are involved in an online romance, “especially with someone who claims they’re wealthy but then turns around in days or weeks later and asks for money because they’re in some kind of scenario or catastrophe, that is a number one red flag. You should not send them money.”

She also stressed just because you actually meet someone face to face after first meeting online, it doesn’t mean there’s not a scam going on.

“There are warning signs,” she said. “Those red flags are when that individual asks you for money and you haven’t known them for very long, or you don’t know much about them and you don’t know where they live.

She added especially with more and more people are meeting online these days it’s important to remember “if there’s online dating and money involved, the public should be wary.”

For more information about this problem, Beck said the FBI has created a new online resource.

“Go to the website called lookstoogoodtobetrue.com. There’s a lot of information on that website that talks about romance scams,” she said.

Beck also said you can call the FBI or file a complaint at the main online FBI website if you feel you’ve been a victim of a romance scam.

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