Could You Face Criminal Charges for Lying About Yourself on a Dating Site?
In the old days, people would join social clubs and activities, get set up by friends, and even pay for in-person dating services to meet new people and see if any potential romantic connections result. Finding one’s significant other is big business, as people tend to be social and not interested in living a life in solitude. A loving partner provides a meaningful relationship that can fill one’s life with much joy.
Today, dating can be as easy as downloading an app or buying a membership to a dating site. Here, choosing a person to connect with can come down to profile pictures and a person’s commentary on who they are. As anyone who has dipped their toes into the modern technological dating world likely has learned, not everything on a person’s profile is always accurate. A picture can be ten years old and not look anything like the individual today, and the personal life and an individual’s endeavors may have been exaggerated. It is a roll of the dice to date online, but that is the world we live in, so meeting others and looking for potential partners online is not likely to go away anytime soon.
Though, can what a person says online be a criminal act if they are misrepresenting themselves? Some types of dishonesty are not punishable by the law, like representing one’s self as much younger than is actually true. However, in other situations, lies can be criminal, and it is possible to be arrested for what is known as romance scams.
If you were entangled in a romance scam, you might not have thought or known that your actions were unlawful. Still, after an arrest, it is important to get in touch with an attorney to help you out with your situation, and the Orlando white-collar crime attorneys at Joshi Law Firm, PA, are here for you and prepared to help you navigate such a stressful situation.
Examples of Romance Scams and Fraud
There are several ways that people can defraud others online. Mainly because it is hard to know what is true from what is false when everything is virtual, online fraud schemes like romance scams happen often. If you were looking to date online and you engaged in any of the following behaviors, you could be in trouble for a fraudulent romance scam.
- A foreign person who develops a relationship with a United States citizen and pretends to be interested in marrying them but always delays in-person meetings while constantly requesting and receiving money.
- Establishing an online relationship with another party to gain their trust and then pretending some type of unexpected emergency has come up and requires them to help by sending money.
- Befriending someone online and tricking them into sending money to another party who is connected to the person requesting the financial assistance.
You may have thought that securing financial gains from a person online is innocuous, but it is, in fact, illegal and could be tried as wire fraud which is a white-collar crime in Florida. The penalties for wire fraud in Florida are many years behind bars and expensive fines.
Call a Florida Criminal Defense Attorney Today
Suppose you are being charged with wire fraud or another white-collar crime in Florida. In that case, it is best not to delay contacting an experienced attorney to protect yourself against harsh criminal penalties. Call an Orlando criminal defense lawyer at Joshi Law Firm, PA, today to schedule a free initial consultation to review your case at (407) 661-1109.
