Romance Scams Become More Common on TikTok

Around Valentine’s Day, TikTok warned users about romance scams that become a lot more common in the app and especially around holidays. Recently, there have been a lot of talks about different romance scams thanks to the recent Netflix documentary called ‘The Tinder Swindler.’ The film talks about a scammer Simon Leviev that uses all kinds of plots and schemes to get money from women on dating apps.

When it comes to TikTok, the company shared some recommendations with users to make sure that they don’t become victims of fraudsters. The tips are as follows:

• Don’t share your personal information

It is important that users don’t send money via wire transfers, mention their home address, bank account details, and such. The rules are especially relevant if you have never met a person.

• Don’t rush things

One of the sure signs of scammers is how quickly they try to progress things and confess their feelings. You should pay attention to what they say and look out for any inconsistencies.

• Google their profile photos

While this method may not give you any results, you can try googling a person’s photo to see if it is used anywhere else under a different name. You can also do the same with messages and emails, as they may be sent over and over again to people.

The final advice from TikTok is that if something doesn’t feel right, you should not continue talking to a person. Besides giving recommendations, the company posted a file containing security and privacy tools all users of TikTok should know. It is important to report scammers on the platform to make sure that others don’t run into them as well.

Have you ever had unpleasant encounters when using TikTok? Do you have other tips to spot scammers? Please, share your thoughts in the comments below!