Exploited Crimes & Technology - Alert About Online Romance Scams

Romance scams have been around forever, but now with artificial intelligence, global 5G high speed connection, money transfer options on most apps, and geo location software, online romance scams are estimated to be more than $1.3 billion dollars in losses just in the United States alone. Million Kids has been educating adults about romance scams for several months now.

However, we feel there is an urgent need to raise the funding to develop a targeted outreach education program for Seniors so they will recognize when they may be in danger of being financially exploited. Because of technology, things have changed, and the public (especially older individuals) need to understand how this work.

Historically, like most victims of online exploitation, middle age and senior adults believe that "it won't happen to them". All of us want to believe that we would be smart enough to know when someone is trying to steal our life savings. But with artificial intelligence, overseas criminals have excelled in using technology to fleece even the most sophisticated victim.

The challenge is that individuals who are alone in later years, often go online to seek companionship, share video game chatrooms, access dating sites, or simply answer an email or text for someone we "think" we know.

Now artificial intelligence provides criminals with your most personal information that can be used to pinpoint psychological weaknesses and they will have access to details of your home, your job, your travels, your family, and your friends. This information is smoothly used to ignite a moment of passion, start a flirting relationship, and generally foster trust.

What looks like a new best friend, or someone who finally understands me, a romantic interest that reignites the long dead passions, the victim will not realize that they are actually interacting with a bot, an algorithm, or a criminal ring working out of Nigeria, Philippines or Mynamar that is designed to take every dime you have and are left destitute.

Million Kids believes this does not have to happen. We are developing an outreach program to educate " Big Kids - some in the 70's and 80's" about how online scams work and how not to be a victims.

If you are interested in helping us get this program off the ground, please go to MillionKids.org/donate. This radio show is designed to start the outreach process so everyone understands the power of artificial intelligence in online scams and most important to educate yourself and your loved ones so they won't become a victim of online exploitation.