The FBI warned today that a massive spike of online romance scams this year caused Americans to lose more than $113 million since the start of 2021.
The scammers behind this type of online fraud trend (also known as confidence fraud) — which can lead to significant financial losses and devastating emotional scars — use fake online identities to gain potential victims' trust on dating or social media platforms.
After the victims are lured in, the crooks take advantage of the illusion of a romantic relationship they project to manipulate the targets into sending money or financial info that later can be used for other types of fraud schemes, including investment scams.
"The FBI warns of a rising trend in which scammers are defrauding victims via online romance scams, persuading individuals to send money to allegedly invest or trade cryptocurrency," the federal law enforcement agency said in a PSA published today on the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) site.
"From January 1, 2021 — July 31, 2021, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received over 1,800 complaints, related to online romance scams, resulting in losses of approximately $133,400,000."
The FBI also provided tips on protecting yourself from romance scams:
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