{"id":1575,"date":"2023-02-13T23:56:56","date_gmt":"2023-02-14T04:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2023-02-28T13:06:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T18:06:13","slug":"is-it-amour-or-time-for-armor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/is-it-amour-or-time-for-armor\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it amour or time for armor?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By Crystal Baldwin<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are perfect matches online, and there are scammers. How can a person tell the difference when online profiles of scammers can be just as good as, if not better than, profiles of existing people? Scams that prey on trust and deceive through relationships of confidence and romance are among the most heart wrenching. How can you look for love online, while keeping your heart protected?<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/files\/2023\/02\/Armor-your-heart-1-1024x1024.png\" alt=\"Armor Your Heart: Verify identity with image search, ask for pics w\/ unlikely poses, video chat on your terms, Seek advice from friends. AVOID: Contacts with lots of excuses, Requests for money and account info.\" class=\"wp-image-1578\" width=\"330\" height=\"331\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Armor your heart. Be romance scam smart.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffe9f0\"><strong>Armor your heart by using verification strategies:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verify the person\u2019s identity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Using<strong> image search<\/strong>, you can see how frequently a photo occurs elsewhere online and in different profiles<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ask contacts<\/strong> what they think<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ask photo poses with very specific <strong>uncommon photos<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Video chat <\/strong>on your terms and don\u2019t accept excuses of having slow internet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ffe9f0\"><strong>Armor your heart by knowing the signs of a scammer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Refuses <\/strong>to provide additional <strong>photos<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Refuses<\/strong> <strong>to chat<\/strong> through <strong>webcam<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Is <strong>difficult to reach <\/strong>by phone, or prohibited from calling<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Has excuses<\/strong> as to why you can\u2019t meet<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Needs money<\/strong>, or financial support of any nature, including a business venture<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wants to \u201cstrengthen the relationship\u201d by <strong>sharing personal identifiable information <\/strong>(accounts, passwords, credit cards, and more) or opening lines of credit together<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You can find love online and avoid scams. Before looking for love online, armor your heart by visiting our romance scam prevention site: <a href=\"https:\/\/ago.vermont.gov\/cap\/scam-prevention-through-awareness-and-education\/romance-imposter-scams\">https:\/\/ago.vermont.gov\/cap\/scam-prevention-through-awareness-and-education\/romance-imposter-scams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We created videos and tools to help you identify online romance scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you or someone you know has encountered a scam in Vermont, report it.\u202fUse CAP\u2019s\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/ago.vermont.gov\/cap\/scam-prevention-through-awareness-and-education\/family-imposter-scams\">online scam reporting form<\/a>&nbsp;and visit the our&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/ago.vermont.gov\/cap\/recover-scams\">scam recovery<\/a>&nbsp;webpage.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Help us stop these scams by sharing this information with those you care about.\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are perfect matches online, and there are scammers. How can a person tell the difference when online profiles of scammers can be just as good as, if not better than, profiles of existing people? Scams that prey on trust and deceive through relationships of confidence and romance are among the most heart wrenching. How can you look for love online, while keeping your heart protected? Armor your heart by using verification strategies and knowing the signs of a scammer.  <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/is-it-amour-or-time-for-armor\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4480,"featured_media":1578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[704914,704865,639477,481474,505456,274720,639459,704912,482450,704913],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-knowyourrelationshipstakestepstoverify","tag-stopscamswithslow","tag-takestepstoverify","tag-consumer","tag-elder-protection-initiative","tag-online-dating","tag-relationship-imposter","tag-romance-scams","tag-scams","tag-stop-scams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1575"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1582,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1575\/revisions\/1582"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/cap\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}