NH Attorney General Warns of Catfishing Scams

Catfishing = According to Urban Dictionary.com,

Someone who pretends to be someone else, especially on the internet. Found on anywhere from instagram to twitter to chat sites, these people use fake pictures to disguise who they are.

According to a story from WMUR, the NH Attorney General has issued a warning to older women who could be the target of a romance scam.

The story states that the scammer will call the potential victim and start conversing with them, usually through email.  After a while, the scammer will ask for money.  Some people have fallen for it.

In a way, I'm glad that this story has been localized to NH and I'll tell you why:

A friend of mine, an older lady, recently lost her husband of many years.  She, understandably, is lonely.  She told me about a man she was talking to online who claimed to be someone he's not.  Not only does she believe she has a relationship with this man, but she believes that he's asked her to marry him.  This just isn't true.  The man she is talking to claims to be a celebrity who is already married.  Although she hasn't told me that he's asked her for money, I'm certain he has.  She has never talked to this person on Skype and they've never seen each other face to face.  He is scheduled to come to NH for a concert and she's not going.  I really like this woman and I just want to scream, HE DOESN'T WANT YOU TO GO BECAUSE IT'S NOT HIM!!

Like me, if you know of someone who is potentially getting scammed, you can call, the report states, the Consumer Protection Hotline at 603-271-3641 or 888-468-4454.