Although the majority of the users on our site are men seeking trans women, since trans women make up a much smaller portion of the general population, we are seeing scammers specifically target trans women.

Two common approaches are used.  In the bad check scam, they offer to mail you a check to help with your bills or rent or for some other reason.  After you deposit the check, something comes up and they ask you to send them a little bit of money back in either an iTunes card or another type of card or even through Western Union.  After you send the money, you find out the check was fraudulent and that you are not only responsible for repaying the bank the full amount you withdrew for the check but the bank might also alert the police who could arrest you for cashing a bad check.  If you are honest with the police about what happened they will usually not arrest you in this situation but if they become suspicious they might and you should consider contacting an attorney for legal representation if you are able to find an attorney to help.  Obviously if you have not cashed the check yet, do not cash it, instead report it to the bank or the police.

Another variant of this is the fraudulent account scam.  This scam is the same as the bad check scam except that instead of sending you a check they give you a bank routing number and account number to use to pay your bills or rent or for some other purpose.  Then they ask you to send a little bit of money back in either an iTunes card or by other means.  After you send the money you find out the bank account was either fake or worse the account for someone whose information was stolen by the scammer and now they have tried to make you an accomplice in a wire fraud scheme.  If this happens, preserve all records of your communication with the scammer, then google the bank whose routing number they provided and report it.

Financial fraud is a serious crime and romance scammers are ruthless in their efforts to trick naive people into helping them commit these crimes.  They don't care what happens to you or if you get arrested, and they usually live in countries with no extradition to the US.  If it seems to good to be true, it usually is!

Last but not least I should mention that nude photo or video blackmail scams are also becoming common.  In this scam the fraudster usually poses as a beautiful person with a convincing fake profile and asks you to video chat.  You might even see them on video, and the scammer might even be an attractive person.  Next they convince you to say or do embarrassing things on video or perform sexual acts, while showing your face or having shown your face in the same video.  Next they switch gears and threaten to share the video with everyone you known unless you pay them.  These scammers are also located outside the US, their profile is a lie.  The best approach is to protect your social media accounts, and be wary of people you have not met in person.  The goal of online dating is to meet people in real life.  If you are talking to people who live thousands of miles away you'll likely never meet, the odds are one of them is trying to scam you.