Google Hangouts Scams in 2022: Need to Knows & Protection
You might be thinking that it can’t happen to you because you know how to protect yourself against these scam people. However, many scammers know the tricks to handle the unconscious mind of a person and make him their victim without letting them know beforehand. Most scammers trap your mind in a way that you fail to detect their real intentions regardless of how smart you are. Especially, romance scams are the most common that occur when you move to Google hangouts from dating sites. The person with whom you met online on dating sites asks you to move to google hangouts and then rob your money by creating fake stories. To protect yourself from these romance scams, must read this article till the end.
Table of Contents
- How Google Hangouts Scams Happen
- How to Avoid Google Hangouts App Scams
- Could You Be A Victim Of A Google Hangout Scam?!
- Is Hangouts a dating app?
- How do you report scammers on google hangouts?
- How can you track someone on google hangouts that has been scamming me?
- Is google hangouts safe from hackers?
- Wrap Up
How Google Hangouts Scams Happen
By using the internet, billions of people around the world are trying out different ways to make the money online. The craze for becoming a millionaire overnight has made people even use illegal and unethical ways to make money. For example, you would find many fraudulent money-making schemes that trap innocent people. They convince people for spending in their fake money-making schemes to rob their money and then disappear. Every year, many people become victims of such scammers in an attempt to improve their lifestyle by making money online.
The sad reality is that not only on economic or financial platforms, but many people lose their money on dating platforms. In an attempt to find love and friendships on social media platforms or dating sites, they become the victim of romance scammers. Not all dating sites are fake but many of them are filled with romance scammers. When you make your account on any dating site and add account information, any scammer can approach it. Therefore, it’s important to beware of the lies romance scammers tell you on dating sites, Google hangouts, or social networking sites.
Any romance scammer may start communicating to you as he is your perfect match but he is not in actuality. He would easily trap you through his love talks and make you transfer his money for a fake reason. However, don’t believe in the lies romance scammers talk about, no matter if it is a popular platform or an ordinary dating site. Make sure you look up the red flags that appear in your conversation to the unsuspecting men. If you notice even a few red flags, make sure to identify the real person behind this talk and restrict yourself from sending money.
While talking to a scammer, you would feel that he has no concern for your problems and worries. Whenever you would try to discuss your issues with him, he would behave as least concerned or less supportive. Similarly, You would see that he always wants to talk about your job, bank balance, and such stuff. Through his conversations, he would convince you for sending money or buy something for him.
He may also take you in confidence and rob your bank account. After that, he would disappear and would never come back to you no matter how much you struggle to find him. Instead, he would move on to find a new partner for him from whom he can take out the maximum benefit as he took from you. Therefore, make sure you report such scammers along with their romance scams if you encounter them.
When it comes to fraud through romance scams, the scammer would usually do it through one of the following ways.
Convince you to move to Google Handouts
When a person looks for new friends online by using dating sites, he starts trusting people more frequently. The most important thing while using online dating apps is to remember that not all people are the real people on these sites. Instead, there are guys that represent themselves as a young woman. As per current research, the romance scams reached an amount of approximately $300+ that are withdrawn from the accounts of innocent people. A person presenting himself as a young woman would also have several pictures of a woman on his profile to deceive you. Do you remember any such romance scammer trying to manipulate you on dating or social networking sites? If so, get alert through his suspicious demands and step back.
One of the suspicious acts of scammers is that he would try to convince you to move to Google Hangouts. Google hangouts is not a scam app but many scammers use it to rob money from people. A scammer would ask you to move out of a dating site to a more personal means of communication. For this, he may ask you to start talking on Google hangouts where he would access your personal details. For example, he can see your personal email id and start sending you emails there. He would also send you a lot of photos as well as videos to stay in close touch with you.
If you are a woman and show interest in him, then it would be a golden opportunity for him. The scammer would have to show a fake gender but would keep communicating as a man. He would send you his pictures too and tell you stories that make you feel so emotionally attached to him. Not only on google hangouts, but he would also approach your social media accounts to get more information about you.
Persuade you to send money
When a close relationship is built between you and him, he would now start convincing you to exchange gifts and gift cards. He may tell you a story that he has got injured and needs some immediate financial help. Through his painful but fake story, he would easily make you the victim of financial scams. You may think that he is in a serious condition in a hospital and needs immediate funds to start the treatment. With these thoughts, you may immediately transfer him some payment without thinking anything else.
Similarly, the romance scammers also make fake stories about their family fights and request money. For example, a romance scammer may tell you that his father has kicked him off from the house due to poor grades. He may say that I’ve no idea where to go during this midnight or I am so stressed. Can you please borrow me some money so that I can stay in a hotel until I figure out things? Just because you love him, you would immediately transfer him money without inquiring about anything. However, keep in mind that many of these stories from oil rig scammers are based on no reality. Instead, these romance scammers do it only to get some cash from you by taking advantage of the moment.
If you are stuck in any of such situations, try to figure out the real intentions of your partner. For example, you may ask him to make a video call and see if he is really injured. Video calls are the best way to evaluate a romance scam. Through making video calls, you can reveal all of his scammed stories while being on the safe side. Similarly, you may ask him to share the hospital or hotel receipts and call their reception to inquire. Without going into the depth of the matter and doing a search about it, never trust these oil rig scammers.
Make you send an incentive to the scammer
In many other cases, the romance scams reached people through the requests of sending various incentives. If your dating partner is a scammer, he may convince you to send an incentive to him through telling stories. For example, the scammer may ask you to send a part of his car because he just got an accident. He may tell that his car is at a small workshop but they don’t have the relevant car part. Similarly, it could be anything else through which somebody can scam you.
Suppose that you are in a relationship with a scammer that you have just found through online dating apps. As that person is not the real person but a scammer, he asks you to shift to google hangouts. You make no objection and start talking to your dating partner there. This oil rig scammer may start to take a deep interest in the details of you and your family. He does so to make an estimate about how much benefit he can take from you. When two people turn into a love relationship, they usually don’t hide anything from each other. You would also do the same until his scam open up your eyes. For example, he may tell you that he is coming to marry you and then make some story to get the plane ticket from you. When you buy a plane ticket for that oil rig scammer or send money for the ticket, he disappears. In this way, these scammers trap people and take benefit from them.
Another example of the most common romance scam is to take gifts from the scammed person. The scammer may tell you that it is his birthday and make you send a gift to him. He would manipulate you to buy such a gift that has a good monetary value so that he can resell. Similarly, the scammed person may also demand some gift cards from you or any such thing. He may also send you a picture of the original poster of his favorite thing with the price tag at a shop. The purpose behind it would make you buy that thing for him by believing in his wrong talks. Keep in mind that a loyal guy won’t make you spend money on him but only scammers do this. Most of the romance scams happen with women, so be careful when you choose to date over the internet with strange people.
How to Avoid Google Hangouts App Scams
To steer clear of Google hangouts app scams, the best way is to get an alert from the red flags appearing in your relationship. It’s essential to take notes of all the alarming signs that might indicate that something is wrong. The key rule to remember here is to stop blinding trust in every person. Not every guy is honest and loyal to you but it’s actually hard to find a loyal person. Most of them only pass time with you while many are scammers too. If your partner force you to come out of the dating app and download hangouts, you should be alert. Downloading hangouts doesn’t mean that the person is a scammer but it’s just because many scammers use hangouts.
If you move to this app for further communications with your dating partner, validate his identity. The first thing that you should do is to verify your online dating partner first. To do so, the best approach is to ask him about his social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. Ask him to add you to all of his social media accounts. He won’t hesitate to add you there if he is not a scammer. Once he adds you to his social media accounts, go through each of his accounts and validate his details. Check his photos, videos, or all of his posts as well as his comments on people’s posts. All of these steps would give you a clear idea about what type of person he is. Usually, people turn a step back if they are scammers when their dating partners ask about their social media accounts.
Make a comparison among their stories, content, and bio descriptions among different social media accounts. If they match with each other and all contact details are the same as they are on a dating site, they are real people. If you find a contradiction among their bio’s and pictures, etc., listen to your instincts. Keep in mind that life doesn’t end on one person. Instead, the right person would be waiting for you after you close up all contacts with this wrong person.
Another important way to avoid google hangouts scams is to don’t expose your feelings too soon. When you start chatting with someone, don’t tell him too shortly that you have fallen in love with him. Never let anyone know how do you feel about him and what you think about him. Instead, keep your conversations short and formal. It doesn’t mean that you won’t have fun with him while talking but you should have fun but don’t get too frank. Restrict yourself from being open up too soon but wait for the right time. During the initial phase of your relationship, keep your focus on interpreting the person. Evaluate his talks and interpret the meanings and intentions behind them. See if he is only interested in sex, meetup, and money or has a better approach to lead this relationship.
After some time of being with him, ask him to meet you when he demands you to send money. If he is a scammer, he won’t meet up with you but start making lame excuses. Keep in mind that when a man falls in true love with you, nothing in the world can stop him from meeting you. However, a scammer won’t have any interest in meeting you because he is afraid that you would detect him. To hide his identity as well as intentions, he would make excuses and force on sending money.
A common excuse of the scammer is that they would tell you a location that is far away from you. He may tell you that his house is at a remote location and it’s very hard this time to meet. Instead of refusing you clearly, he would show you a hope that he would come at some other time. He may ask you to send money first so that he can arrange some conveyance or meeting. Whatever lies he speaks, you should keep your eyes open and never trust such scammers. These scammers connect to you only for the sake of getting money or some incentives from you.