This is NOT Fraud Advice--Romance Scams

After this heat wave, I think we can officially welcome the start of the summer of love.

I suspect (read: hope) we are in store for a particularly romantic summer here in NYC and around the US. Warm weather leads to walks along the beach, pretty sundresses, and too many camp collars and flip-flops for our favorite finance bros.

Many of us have turned to dating apps to find love. Others have turned to dating apps to make some money. Today, I will explain how to scam lonely people into giving you money.

Regarding fraud, romance schemes are low in technical difficulty and more demanding of patience, time, and eq.

You can take a few routes, but we will focus on targeting over-eager youngsters who likely haven't read many of these scams. The whole thing will feel a bit slimy, and that is because it is. This is a fraud, not a romantic walk on the beach.

Let's download our favorite app (or least favorite if you also plan to use apps genuinely). We will set our location in a smaller city like Kansas City. We will target men (boys) because they are a little more eager than their female counterparts. So, we are an 18-year-old girl from LA. We are going to be moving to Kansas City next month (it will always be next month) because our Dad was laid off, and we need to relocate.

We are on apps looking to meet guys around our age or a little younger, so we have friends in Kansas City before we move. Based on my female friends' dating app experiences, we should have plenty of matches shortly. We will start chatting with them. Let them know we are looking for friends who will show us around KC. We also share stories of a rough childhood, moving frequently as our Dad, who struggles with substance abuse, cannot hold down a job.

We spend weeks nurturing these relationships, displaying vulnerability and flirting to keep the suitors interested.

Then, one day, something terrible happens. We ran away but did not have enough money to go to your grandparents' house in SF. We are still coming to KC soon, but we need to get to family first. We ask a couple of our suitors for $25 to buy a bus ticket.

Some will send $25; some won't. If we get really lucky, some will send $100 so we can get some food as well.

We can repeat this scheme in perpetuity across multiple cities. Very few dating apps have IDV, and none of them mandate verification, so we can just make new profiles each time.

As always, Footprint can help here. With various levels of IDV, we help companies bolster trust across the marketplace without adding unnecessary levels of friction during onboarding.