There's nothing worse than a broken heart. Except maybe a broken heart and an empty bank account. So pour one out for the 32,792 people that reported they were a victim of a "romantic scam" last year in the US. As online dating has gone mainstream (we've written about that here), so have the scammers, armed with a limitless supply of attractive photos from the internet.
Lucrative lies
Total losses to romance scams topped more than $304 million last year and the FTC report on the subject reveals that "the median amount people sent romance scammers in 2020 using any method of payment was $2,500". That's more than ten times the median loss across all other fraud types, making romantic scams extraordinarily lucrative for scam artists, presumably because it's so much easier to manipulate a human being when romantic feelings and emotions are involved.
The pandemic itself has added an extra dynamic for the scammers to use. COVID is a convenient excuse for why your love interest can't travel to see you or why they may need monetary help.
Interestingly, although older people were more likely to get scammed for more money (median loss of almost $10k for those aged 70+), the number of scams reported by people aged 20-29 more than doubled last year. Swipe safely folks.
