5 ways to spot a scammer

  1. Scammers ask for money.

  2. Scammers ask for your phone number

  3. Scammers give too many compliments up front

  4. Scammers avoid answering questions

  5. Scammers try to move you off the app to another chat app

    Continue scrolling…

Scam awareness guide

Likk is committed to creating a LGTBQIA+ safe and authentic environment free of scammers, fake accounts, and spam. We have technology in place to detect and remove these accounts, including proactive machine learning models, text and image hash detection and blocking, and a dedicated moderation team, working 24/7 that blocks illicit content and responds to user flags and reports. 

That said, scamming is an entire industry, based on scammer’s ability to quickly adapt to security measures. Social media and dating apps are a prime target for these bad actors, as scammers seek to exploit people looking to make meaningful connections. While we detect and block a huge amount of these accounts that you will never see as a user, some still get through. 

The best protection is education. We’ve compiled a list of common scams to help you spot and avoid them. There may be overlap between different types of scams, and any individual scamming scheme may exhibit components of multiple different types of scams.

If you ever have questions about a message you’ve received or encounter a profile that looks suspicious, please report the profile or reach out to our support team.

🏳️‍🌈Use Likk’s messaging system until you have established trust 💜

General scam tips

Trust your Gut.
Scammers know what things people are looking for; love, sex, money, friends, or something else. Sadly, they exploit people by offering things that are hard to oppose. If it’s sounding too good to be true or feels uncanny that it probably is.

Never send money.
Be aware of anyone who asks you to send money to them (or someone else) or asks you to pay in order to interact with them. Scammers use Third-party apps; Cash App, Venmo, Pay Pal, Apple pay, Google pay, Samsung pay. If they even mention one of these apps they are most likely a scammer.

Never create Likk accounts for anyone other than yourself.

Some scammers will attempt to get you to create Likk accounts for them, which they will use as scam accounts. These may be sugar mommy scammers offering money in exchange for accounts. This could result into your account getting banned from Likk.

Don’t share private info too quickly.
Be cognizant of who you give your personal contact information to, especially if you are sending them nude photos or trading any kind of content (including private chats) that you wouldn’t want others to see. Scammers can discover your identity (name, location, contacts, employer, family members, etc) from a phone number or social media, and use that information to threaten you.
Be wary of anyone who tries to communicate outside of the Likk app immediately. Scammers know they will be banned on Likk quickly, so they often try to move to email, text, etc. right away.

Do your own research.
Sometimes scammers will give out phone numbers with country codes that don’t match their claimed location. For example 206 is a Seattle Washington Area code where +234 is an area code in Nigera, West Africa where a lot of scammers reside.
If a LGTBQIA+ person is asking you for social media links or info, ask for theirs too. This is the easiest way to tell if they are hiding information from you such as an illegitimate account

 

Romance scam or “Lonely heart scam”

  • The scammer will win your trust by telling you a story about themselves that makes them seem reliable. For example, they may claim to be in the military or a doctor or business person working overseas.

  • They will often emphasize how honest and trustworthy they are, and how they are looking for the same in another person because they have been hurt by others before.

  • They will often claim that age and distance don’t matter at all to them, and will often have a complicated backstory about who they are, where they are from, and where they are now.

  • Once they have your trust, they will tell you a story about how they need money.

  • They will often ask for your contact info right away and try to continue the conversation off the Likk’s app, because they know they will get banned here instantly.

Tips to protect LGTBQIA+ People

  • Never send anyone money, for any reason.

  • If a story sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

  • Use Likk’s messaging system until you have established some trust.

  • Most sugar mommas aren’t real people.

  • Helpful resource:
    https://www.mass.gov/news/crypto-scammers-targeting-the-lgbtqia-community

Sugar Mommy scam

  • The scammer will claim to be a sugar mommy who wants to send you an allowance in exchange for some type of interaction, usually sending nudes, often with very specific dollar amounts and wanting to connect via Cash App, Venmo, or other payment service right away. They will also sometimes offer to pay by check.

  • After promising to send you a large amount of money, they may tell you that a previous sugar baby betrayed them. This is how they’ll justify asking you to send them a smaller amount of money first, in order to prove your loyalty.

  • The scammer may also connect stolen credit cards to Venmo or Cash App and use them to transfer the allowance to you. They’ll then say that they accidentally sent you too much money, and ask you to return a portion of it. If you do that, the scammer will have deleted the stolen card info from their account and added their own – so the “refund” goes to their own card instead of the stolen one. Eventually, if the stolen card is reported to Venmo or Cash App, any money that was stolen from that card will be returned, so you’ll be out the “free money,” and the scammer will have yours instead.

Examples:

  • "Hello beautiful I will spoil you, just text me on other app now if you are interested"

  • "wow u look cute & interesting I Will like to have u as my baby u Will be paid $10000 if u accept to be my baby add me up on WhatsApp @ [insert scam number here]."  

Security app registration scam

These scams are designed to get your personal and financial details by asking you to register with a third-party site claiming to be a “security app,” which is actually fake. The scammer often claims that they were previously assaulted by someone they met.

Scammers asking for verification codes

Some scammers will try to trick you into allowing them to use your phone number to register or SMS verify accounts on Likk or other apps. They will ask for your phone number and then claim they sent you a code. They’ll ask you to send them the code that you received in. ***PLEASE NEVER GIVE A STRANGER YOUR PHONE NUMBE UNTIL AFTER YOU’VE MET THEM IN PERSON…

Third-party app links

A common scammer method is to “spam,” or send mass messages with links to third-party sites. Generally, they know that it will be an obvious spam message to most people, but if they get only a small portion of people to click through, it’s worth their time. These messages will ask for payments or credit card information or send requests to search for a name that leads to a third- party site. These sites will often contain malware, bad ads, or will solicit your personal information or money. 

Tips:

  • Don’t follow suspicious links.

  • If a user asks you to Google them instead of providing info directly, it’s suspicious.

Likk support message scam

The Likk support team will never try to get you to go to a third-party site, or offer “free money”. Emails from our support team come from Help@likk.com or via the in-app