FBI warns of AI-powered romance scams surging ahead of Valentine’s Day—victims lose over $1B to fake love
The FBI warns of a sharp increase in sophisticated romance scams targeting individuals online, especially around Valentine’s Day, with fraudsters using dating apps, social media and AI to manipulate victims into losing life savings.
Reported losses from romance scams hit $1.12 billion in 2023, with a median loss of $2,000 per victim, making it the most damaging form of imposter fraud tracked by the FTC. Victims are often women over 40, widowed, divorced or disabled.
Scammers create fake profiles (often posing as overseas professionals), rapidly build trust, then fabricate emergencies to extract money. The “pig butchering” scam involves grooming victims for fake cryptocurrency investments—one man lost $1.5 million.
Fraudsters now use AI-generated photos, deepfake videos and chatbots to craft believable personas, bypassing language barriers and making scams harder to detect. Some victims unwittingly become involved in criminal activity (e.g., money laundering).
The FBI provides tips to protect ourselves, such as reverse-image-searching profile pictures, being wary of quick declarations of love, never sending money to someone you haven’t met, avoiding sharing sensitive personal/financial details and reporting scams to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
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