Dating apps in tourist hot spots target Americans. How to protect yourself

A Venezuelan national who held three American men hostage for ransom in the Dominican Republic after luring them with dating apps will spend 25 years behind bars, a Washington, D.C., judge ordered this month.

On three separate occasions between July 5 and July 30 in 2022, 30-year-old Deivy Jose Rodriguez Delgado used the moniker "Sebastian" to arrange dates with his victims, then picked them up in his car, the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) of the District of Columbia wrote in a press release. 

Delgado would drive a short distance then stop his car to let his accomplice jump into the back seat. The two men would then physically restrain the startled victim for up to an hour and demand a ransom for their release. 

At knifepoint, each victim was to call friends or family members, who were then ordered to send money to Delgado's CashApp account. Then each victim was robbed of their personal effects before they were unceremoniously released back on the street. 

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Authorities in the Dominican Republic traced a vehicle used in two of the abductions back to Delgado after launching an investigation in August 2022 and found a knife used in the attacks inside the car upon his arrest on Sept. 14, 2022.

After a nearly two-week trial, a jury convicted him of one count of conspiracy to commit hostage taking and three counts of hostage taking, according to the USAO's office. After 25 years in federal prison, he will serve five years of probation.

Delgado will also be subject to deportation proceedings upon his release from jail. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

Patrick McCall of McCall Risk Group, which conducts private investigations and provides bodyguard services nationally and abroad, told Fox News Digital his agency has seen Delgado's scheme before in the Dominican Republic, elsewhere abroad and even within the United States. 

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"This is kind of a new scam that's out there. It's targeting kind of lonely people or people that are looking for that connection, trying to find it outside the … traditional means of the U.S. or maybe going to a local bar or go to a local book reading or something where, you know, traditionally people have found these type of connections or met people there basically going on the internet, searching, using apps that are U.S. based here having no luck and then either being referred by a friend or a recommendation to try a different alternative app, which a lot of people are, which is kind of opening the door for these international incidents that occurring like the one in the Dominican Republic," McCall told Fox News Digital. 

These romance scammers, generally foreigners working from abroad or within the U.S., are very sophisticated and "rarely get caught," McCall said. 

"They're going to build a rapport with you. It's kind of like a confidence … scam or scheme," McCall said. "They're going to build up your confidence that, hey, the person I am talking to is indeed the person. They're genuine. They haven't asked me for any money. They haven't asked me to send them anything."

McCall recommended that, especially if you are meeting a stranger abroad, you should meet them in a public place. 

"These people are striking a rapport with somebody and not meeting them at a resort or meeting them at, you know, a public place like we were here in New York," he said. "They're basically in this person's backyard, this person speaking up from the airport, picking up from a location either from the resort, taking them outside to an area that they don't know. And ultimately, that's where this person, you know, preys and imprints on them."

Romance scammers often use dating apps to lure in victims to target high-net worth individuals who would likely be embarrassed if their co-workers or family members knew about their efforts to find love, or a casual date, McCall said.

But McCall also said that always letting someone know of your whereabouts can prevent you from falling victim to this type of scam. 

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"If you're going to go buy a car ... you're going to seek a second opinion, or you're going to speak to a family member about it, [if] you're going to take a new job, you're going to speak to a family member or somebody you confide in about this potential new job; same thing with this relationship," McCall said. "You know, if you're going to go meet somebody and leave the country to go to another location, leave the state to go to another location or get outside of your comfort zone, I would always let somebody know, hey, here's who I'm speaking to. Here's the information."

He also recommended doing your own research and using reverse image searching tools to ensure that a potential match's photos don't appear elsewhere online. 

"Do as much research as you can to see if that person's the person that they say they are," he said. "This day and age with the World Wide Web, you can jump on the internet within minutes, find somebody. You can jump into Google and put somebody's photo and see if it pops up in any sort of LinkedIn sites, any other sort of social media, any news stories."

"Has this person been arrested for a heinous crime? Is this person the banking person that they allege that they are, you know, working for this bank? So I always tell people: Do your due diligence, be smart, don't be embarrassed."

Playing hard-to-get on online dating sites can work in your favor in more ways than one, McCall said.

"Put out some, you know, some things at first, you know, hey, listen, I'm just on the site to have a conversation; speak with people. Don't put out that you're looking to meet with somebody or potentially meet with somebody," McCall suggested. "[Say] 'I'm not looking to meet with anybody. I'm just looking for some online friendship. I never traveled to these countries. I never travel to these states. I don't really leave this.'

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"If that person generally wants to have that conversation or that companionship with you, they're going to have it with you. [But if that] person is out to scam you and not genuine, they're going to move on to an easier target. They're going to move on to the person who potentially is going to want to meet with them so they can put their plan into effect and either extort the money out of them, hold them hostage or, you know, sometimes something worse."