'Romance scammers' managed to get away with USD 139 million worth of crypto last year. This number is up five times from 2020, according to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) data.
Romance scammers, or who can also be called catfishers, are usually circulating on dating apps or social media. One of the best known today is Simon Leviev aka The Tinder Swindler.
These scammers usually create profiles on dating apps or social media using photos stolen from the internet, and then trick victims into sending them money.
Some scammers claim to need money to solve financial problems, but interestingly there are also those pretending to be financial experts who promise to invest their victims' money in crypto or stocks.
Based on FTC data, throughout 2021 romance fraudsters stole a total of USD 547 million. The largest total loss came from crypto, with victims losing an average of USD 9,770.
In addition to crypto, fraudsters also ask for a lot of gift cards from their victims. 28% of victims gave gift cards to fraudsters, for a total loss of USD 36 million.
Victims of online dating scams also paid fraudsters USD 121 million via bank transfer and other forms of payment, and paid USD 93 million via wire transfer, as quoted from The Verge, Tuesday (15/2/2022).
Social media is still the main place for romance scams like this to occur. According to FTC data, Facebook is the starting place for 23% of frauds, while Instagram is 13%.
Considering that online dating has become a widely used method of finding a mate, there are some warnings or red flags that you must pay attention to if you don't want to be a victim of this kind of scam.
First, if someone you only know online asks to be sent a gift card, money, or crypto, it's best to decline their request. Second, if you suspect that you are a victim of catfishing, look at their profile picture and search on Google using reverse image search to see if the photo was stolen or not.