While you might be anxious about getting your taxes filed and that return on the way, you'll likely get the best result if you choose your tax preparer wisely. Whether your return is simple or complex, the BBB has some tips for picking an appropriate preparer.
(WSIL) -- In this edition of the Better Business Bureau, and just ahead of the Valentine's Day holiday, we're talking about romance scams. These tend to happen exclusively online, and in the end, can be incredibly costly.
Romance scams get more and more elaborate every year, especially with the evolution of things like A-I and chatbots. These tools help scammers create detailed hacks, even chatbots, that can have conversations with their victim for hours, weeks or even months.
In this edition of the Better Business Bureau, and just ahead of the Valentine's Day holiday, we're talking about romance scams. These tend to happen exclusively online, and in the end, can be incredibly costly.
Sydney Waters, the director of the Cape Girardeau Better Business Bureau, suggests being very diligent when it comes to online dating. She asks user to be sure to use well known dating sites that also include safeguards for their users. Waters says, if someone you're chatting with online suggests that you move from the forum to another form of online communication, that should be a major red flag. These scammers try to move people from these safeguarded forums to areas of the web that allow for hacking or the transfer or private information.
Waters also wants to warn users about a trend to entice people to invest in cryptocurrency. Waters says, these can be very long-term scams, where the scammer will carry on lengthy relationships with someone, eventually revealing an "investment opportunity" once trust has been established. Waters says, scammers who use this tactic often target older victims, due to their lack of knowledge of either the internet or cryptocurrency.
A great resource to check out, before heading online to look for love, is the Better Business Bureau website. There, you can find helpful information about romance scams and the red flags to identify them. You can also find detailed information about how to spot A-I in a variety of situations.
