Falling for Love or Falling for a Scam: The Dark Side of Online Romance

Not only is love in the air surrounding Valentine’s Day in February, so are fraudsters. Please be wary of romance scams on dating sites and social media as these are popular mediums for scammers. Romance fraudsters develop fake identities to build a rapport with their victims, and they can be extremely manipulative and convincing. Once contact has been made, the scammer will quickly seek to move the conversation off the dating app or website and onto personal channels such as WhatsApp or text messages. They do this because they will be targeting multiple people at once and if their account is suspended due to one person reporting them, they will not lose contact with their other victims.

Romance fraudsters have 101 reasons why they can’t speak via video call or meet in person. They may claim they are willing to meet up, but don’t have enough money to travel. This is often the first way they start trying to take small amounts of money from their victims. Before long, they will say that they need help with a serious issue such as a family or medical emergency, financial problems, or having been the victim of a crime themselves. They then exploit their victim’s willingness to help by asking for more and more money. The financial impact of Romance Fraud can be devastating.

You can protect yourself by:

• Keeping conversations on the dating app or website.
• Profile photos may not be genuine, do your research first. Performing a reverse image search on a search engine can find photos that have been taken from somewhere, or someone else
• Never send money to someone you have not met in person, and be very wary about giving money to someone you have only recently started a relationship with.
• If the person asks you to receive money on their behalf, decline. They could be using your account to launder money they have taken from someone else.
• Talk to your family and friends for advice, especially if the person is telling you to keep your new relationship secret.
• Trust your instincts - If you feel like something is wrong, it may well be, so be careful and take a step back.

More advice and information can be found on the Action Fraud website.

Other useful articles can be found in our Counter Fraud Newsletters on the Publications page