For the past couple of months, I have spent a lot of time answering questions on online advice sites, and I’m blown away by the number of romance scams that are plaguing US citizens. It has become an increasing trend for US citizens (mostly males) to start chatting with, and then fall in love with a person (usually a woman) abroad (usually from different parts of Africa, but I also recently got one from the UK), up until the point of proposing. The lover abroad then comes up with a number of sob stories, such as different financial burdens, the need for funds for a ticket, and then a fictitious “Basic Travel Allowance (BTA).” Sometimes the person produces a falsified passport and visa and convinces the US citizen that a few thousand dollars down are the last requirement.
Please be careful if you meet someone online who lives in another country and the person asks you for any amount of money, or tells you they have inherited a pot of gold and need help depositing it in the US (this is a very common scam from Ghana). The US Department of State has a useful, lengthy brochure regarding romance scams; a reference to the BTA, “a requirement that no longer exists,” is made on page 5. For visa requirements specific to the person’s country of citizenship, always check the US Consulate website for that country and read the visa procedures; for a visitor visa, there is normally just a visa application fee of $131, and perhaps an additional nominal visa issuance fee. Anyone asking you for a couple grand is probably a scammer.
Be safe, and big up yourself.
