CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In 2023, Tennesseans over the age of 60 lost a collective of $43 million due to scams, according to a Federal Trade Commission report.
The reports say this is an 18% increase from the previous year.
The origin of a lot of these scams? Dating apps.
Now, Tennessee lawmakers are looking to protect the hearts and wallets of seniors with the ‘Romance Scam Prevention Act.’
Collegedale Police says fraud scams are not always cut an dry. If you’re not sure if it is a scam, Sergeant Cory McNeal says it’s best to call police.
“If it looks funny, if it doesn’t feel right, call your local law enforcement agency. That’s what we’re here for. Usually, we’ve seen it before. We can recognize it pretty quick.”
From coercion tactics, to claiming you have a warrant for an absurd amount of money, scammers often target people through text.
Sgt. McNeal says the only way you’ll be contacted about things like a court date for a warrant is through the state.
“Our court clerk will send a certified letter and it’s usually telling you that your date has been rescheduled, or, ‘hey, you missed this date.'”
Now, scammers are taking it a step further by targeting folks on dating apps.
According to a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau report, romance scams in particular have proven troublesome for people over 60.
The report goes on to say romance scammers spend time getting to know you and developing trust before they ask for a loan or access to your finances.
“That’s when they would make up a tragic story or emergency reason for why they need money, promising to pay it back.”
U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced the Romance Scam Prevention Act, which would require dating apps and services to issue fraud ban notifications to users who have interacted with a person removed from the app.
“This issue came to our attention because of the number of Tennessee seniors that were losing money on these apps to scammers,” Sen. Blackburn says.
Across the country, the FTC reported that romance scams resulted in victims losing $1.3 billion in 2022 alone.
Senator Blackburn says this new bill provides “critical safeguards” to protect dating app users.
“Some of my colleagues and I started looking at what the responsibility should be on the social media sites,” Sen. Blackburn says. “Scammers are merciless in their exploitation of senior citizens who join dating apps to establish meaningful connections but instead end up losing their life savings to con artists who prey on their vulnerabilities.”
The bill would require online dating service providers to notify members if they’ve communicated with someone whose account has been banned for fraudulent activity.
The notification must include the banned member’s profile details and a warning that the banned member might be attempting to scam them.
If passed, the bill would be enforceable by the FTC, allowing state attorneys general to bring civil actions on behalf of affected residents.
It also ensures that no state law can interfere with the process of fraud ban notifications.
