Romance fraud hit 99.4 million pounds 2024 – Here are 7 characters you meet a fraud
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Romance fraud hit 99.4 million pounds 2024 – Here are 7 characters you meet a fraud

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Card stores claim February as the month to celebrate love, but it is also Prime Time for romance fraud. Reported losses reached a colossal £ 99.4 million in 2024, according to action fraud data.

Media headlines sometimes blast romance fraud for being dipped by “ridiculous” mimics by celebrities, or send money to someone they have never met personally. But the victims are usually tangled in a forced web or may be particularly vulnerable to predators online. It is fraud that deserves our mockery, not victims.

Here we explain the tactics they use – including the seven signs that you are meeting a fraudster – and how you get your money back.

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Sharing details about the fraud helps us protect others and inform our fraud, research and policy work. We will gather information about your experience of a fraud, but we cannot identify your answers unless you choose to enter your contact details.

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Who is at risk?

Romance fraud can affect someone, but which one? The report found that fraudsters were strongly focused on men in the 20th century In 2023 and this still the case: Men aged 20-29 accounted for the majority of reports to action fraud 2024, followed by women aged 50-59.

The anonymity of the Internet means that romance fraud can deceive anywhere. Dating apps seem the most obvious, but many are hiding behind fake social media profiles on popular platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok and X or even game apps.

As? has previously warned the public to romantic fraudsters Focus on vulnerable people on charity Facebook pages of Facebook For people who discuss mental health, sleep and aging.

It is difficult to get robust information about cases and losses. The gulf between figures published by Action Fraud-A self-reporting tool and official banking industry tasks indicates that many romance fraud are too ashamed to tell their banks, or not believe that they will be able to get their money back.

A report from the trade body UK Finance stated that the victims of romance victims lost £ 36.5 million (over 4,160 cases) in 2023, while measures for measures for measures set losses to £ 88.3 million (8,608 cases) the same year.

Data obtained by which one? From action fraud, the self -reporting tool for fraud in England, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Fake ‘Brad Pitt’ and other AI celebrities

Fraud will use all tools at their disposal to deceive the victims. Today, which includes Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as Laura Kantaala from Cybersecurity software supplier F-Secure explains.

“They can easily create images, video or audio fakes with AI tools available either free or are very cheap. We recently saw how a French woman was deceived by € 830,000 after believing she met Brad Pitt Online. The pictures Created with AI – some of the pictures even portrayed a fake Brad Pitt that contained a paper with the victim’s name on.

“The problem with AI is that it removes one of the last ways we had to confirm that someone is who they say they are online. Video calls and images can no longer rely on as a way to confirm someone’s identity online because they can easily falsified. Anyone can pretend to be Brad Pitt, or someone they are not, on the internet – and it becomes increasingly difficult to determine what is real or false

Romance fraud red flags

It can be almost impossible to know for sure what you can trust on the Internet, but romance fraud tends to follow familiar designs.

More often than not, they will try to move the conversation to another platform quickly, if they are monitored and lose their original profiles. They may suggest that you continue to chat via text, e -post or messages such as Google Hangouts, Signal, Telegram and WhatsApp.

Some are willing to play the long game, but most people try to create an emotional connection quickly. Exercise to ask for money will usually draw on your heart strands, such as needing money to pay for medical bills or buy equipment to avoid losing their job.

They do not hesitate to manufacture extreme events or family killings to manipulate you; For example, a romantic fraudster reported to whom? Allegedly stay in Strasbourg and take care of an aged mother in Quebec. He had set up his victim for weeks, but she was already suspicious. She expected him to ask for the air ticket, but he chose another tactic and called her on Skype completely out of the blue to claim that his mother had died.

“He said he had € 3.5 million who came to him from her will. He sent me” copies “of her death certificate and will claim he had to get different forms filled to release the money and he had only three days. He asked for £ 10,000. ‘

Others will pretend that they desperately want to visit you and need help paying for visas and travel expenses. They will have jobs that mean they are conveniently not available to meet in person. Example picked up from the last fraud to which one? Include a false UN physician, a fake British soldier from Edinburgh who claims to be away at a conference in Florida and a fake American soldier working in Ukraine.

‘I was’ love-bombed ‘by a crypto-session’

Scammers can also try to steal your money by sharing false investment councils, because Sarah (not her real name) discovered last year after meeting someone on a dating app for vegans.

“He soon asked me to continue chatting over Whatsapp. I was” love bom “. He claimed he managed to invest and convinced me that it would help me pay my bills. He invited me to join a crypto trading platform and encouraged me to deposit money from my revolving account and asked me to transform it into bitcoin first.

Sarah encouraged Sarah to send £ 13,000 to a legitimate Cryptocurrency wallet first, before transferring Bitcoin to a fake site called ant- monetary.com. Then this seemed to be a genuine Cryptocurrency exchange, although it was later added to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Warning list.

Revolut asked Sarah various security issues designed to warn her of potentially fraud when she did the first transfers, but the fraudster trained her through them and assured her that these were standard.

“He said he would get them all the time and that he would help me answer. I was very vulnerable and underwent traumatherapy after cancer. I submitted fraud reports to Revolut, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Action Action. They have all been unsuccessful . ‘

Get back your money

You should always report romance and other fraud losses to your bank or payment provider; However, protection varies depending on how you paid.

If you were tricked into transferring money from your bank account to one checked by a criminal, this is called an authorized push payment fraud and thanks to a new mandatory system you may be eligible for compensation.

The following year of which one? Campaigns for better fraud protection, this system fired from October 7, 2024 and applies to all companies that offer faster payments – the system for electronic payments that are sent directly from one bank account to another.

It only covers transfers to British accounts, so if you send money to a fraudster with an international account you are not protected. Your claim can also be denied if there is evidence that you were particularly careless or “grossly negligent”.

Payment services Regulator (PSR) has said that it expects the majority of victims to be replaced, and vulnerable customers are not subject to the serious negligence test. The maximum you may require is £ 85,000 (several payments associated with the same fraud can be considered a claim). You may be asked to pay £ 100 (claims about surplus), although companies can choose to refrain from this and they may not ask vulnerable customers to pay it.

Other payment methods Not covered by this new schedule, so if a swindler tricks you into sending money via your debit card, gift card or a cryptocurrency wallet, it can be much harder to get your money back.

No matter how you paid, report all fraud to payment providers so that they can investigate and block malicious accounts. If you are not satisfied with its answer, escalate your complaint to Free Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) as it will consider all rules, relevant practice codes and good industry practice when assessing your case.

Get support

Romance fraud can take a huge fee on your mental health, which is not help from sacrifice. You may think it’s good to talk to someone about what you go through, for example Mind or sacrifice support.

Lisa Mills, from the charity victim support, says: ‘The psychological and emotional impact of being deceived by someone you trusted deeply can beat your trust and sense of self -value enormously.

“If you have been a victim, you are not the obligation and you are not alone. Romanes’ whoever are very skilled manipulators who are successfully aimed at thousands of people each year. Contact victim support for free, confidential support via our 24/7 support line or live chat service. ‘

Key information

7 signs that you are hitting a fraudster

  1. Stolen or fake pictures and videos Fraud creates fake online profiles, with attractive warehouses, photos and videos copied from other people’s profiles or generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Use a reverse image search tool, such as Google or Tineye, to see if the image has been published elsewhere on the Internet. However, these tools will not capture all the counterfeits, so look for other red flags.
  2. Replacement platforms They will usually try to move the conversation to a new platform (eg e -post, text or messages) as soon as possible, if their profiles are monitored.
  3. Create an emotional clutch quickly Experts say there is a clear link between romance fraud and forced control. They can manufacture family tragedies, illness or other dramatic events to quickly create an emotional connection. You can be encouraged to keep things secret from friends and family.
  4. Excuses to never meet in person Loving to meet and cancel is a sign that you are dealing with a fraudster, as well as finding any reason to avoid going on the camera. They often claim to live or work abroad, e.g. As a soldier, a doctor or an oil rig worker, maybe sends a copy of a stolen or false passport to “prove” their identity. Although they consent to a face-to-face video call, this can also be falsified by stealing genuine videos from someone else’s social media profile or using AI to create “deepfakes” (doctorated video and audio).
  5. Asks for money or gifts It is only a matter of time before a romantic fraud finds a way to ask you for money, expensive gifts or pre -installed gift cards (eg from Amazon, Google Play, iTunes or Steam). They may just ask for small sums initially, but requests can quickly escalate. Ordinary tactics include claiming that they have urgent bills to pay, travel and visa costs or health problems to convince you to help.
  6. Pitching an investment ‘opportunity’ Another tactic is to offer you adopted investment or trading tips. After establishing trust, they change the conversation and claim that they can help you make some simple money.
  7. Asks for using your bank account Romance fraud may try to turn you into an ‘Money mule“, by making an excuse to transfer money to your bank account and out again. Some romantic fraud involves a network of victims that transfer money to each other, unaware that each of them is used for money laundering and therefore commits a crime.
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