Romance & Personal

Romance & Personal Due Diligence

How to Check If a Phone Number Is Real or a Burner (VoIP)

How to tell whether someone's phone number is a real mobile line or a disposable VoIP/burner number — the lookups to run, what Google Voice and Twilio numbers signal, and why a non-carrier number is a romance-scam red flag.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

Military Romance Scams: Why the 'Deployed Soldier' Story Is a Red Flag

How military romance scams work, why fraudsters impersonate deployed service members, the specific money requests to watch for, and how to verify whether a soldier you met online is real.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

Signs of a Fake Online Profile: A Complete Checklist

A complete checklist for spotting a fake or scam profile on dating apps and social media — photos, account age, engagement, bio inconsistencies, messaging patterns, and AI-generated tells — plus how to verify when you're unsure.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

What to Do If You've Been Scammed: A Step-by-Step Recovery Guide

A calm, practical action plan for the hours and days after discovering you've been scammed online — how to stop the bleeding, preserve evidence, report to the right agencies, try to recover funds, and avoid the recovery-scam second wave.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

Pig Butchering Scams Explained: How Crypto Romance Fraud Works

A clear explanation of pig butchering scams — the long-con romance-plus-investment fraud that has cost victims billions. How the scam unfolds, the warning signs at each stage, and how to verify before you invest a dollar.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

How to Reverse Image Search a Photo to Catch a Catfish

A step-by-step guide to running a reverse image search on someone's photos to check whether they are who they claim to be — which tools to use, how to read the results, and what a clean search does and doesn't prove.

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Romance & Personal Due Diligence

How to Verify Someone You Met Online Is Real

A practical guide to verifying whether someone you met on a dating app or online is real — including the warning signs of a romance scam and when to hire a private investigator.

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