Of the roughly 4,000 online dating sites that cater to every conceivable niche out there, those catering to the wealthy have had some solid staying power.

One such site is Millionaire Matchmaker, which has been serving wealthy online daters for over a decade. The company just launched a new iPhone app that promises to make finding a compatible partner among its clientele of verifiable millionaires “efficient and safe.”

While the appeal of such a platform might work for those looking to avoid “riffraff” (Millionaire Matchmaker’s term, not ours) there are a number of risks to wealthy daters looking for love online.

We covered the outline of that particular scam in a previous blog post. As it relies so heavily on phone contact, you have an advantage if you’re aware that the IRS never demands credit card numbers over the phone. You can simply hang up the phone and ideally report the incident to authorities.

ABC 7 News reported yesterday of a woman targeted by an online dating scammer posing as a US Army sergeant. According to the official Armed Services newspaper Stars & Stripes, these types of scams are prevalent as the scammer simply steals a photo of the member of the armed forces from their social media profiles to use on unsuspecting women.

We encourage you to read the full story at the link above on how this scam develops, but thought we would reiterate some of the key points for avoiding these type of romance scams, whether they come wrapped in camouflage or not.

It should come as no surprise that this time of year is ripe for scams and con artists. The NRF estimates that nearly 20% of all retail sales take place during the holiday months. Anytime there is a flood of money exchanging hands, there will unfortunately be a handful of thieves ready to take advantage.

In addition to the tool utilizing a background check when you have a funny feeling about someone, you should be aware of the following perennial holiday scams to help prevent you from having a Blue Christmas (or Hannuakah, or Kwanza or… Festivus).