Romance and dating scams, also referred to as catfishing, take place when a criminal assumes a false identity online. The goal is establish a fake romantic relationship and exploit the victim’s trust and affection for profit.

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The scammer will adopt a completely different online persona—they will adopt a new name, age, location, personality, and even source another unknown person’s photo or use AI generated images. As quickly as possible, the scammer tries to establish a relationship with the victim. Often, they will make plans to meet in person or speak over webcam, but always have a convenient excuse to cancel. Sometimes, these criminals may even propose marriage. Eventually, however, they always ask for money. The reasons they need money may vary: an emergency expense, legal trouble or medical bills, even travel costs to visit or move-in with the victim.

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This may sound farfetched, and it’s easy to assume you could never fall for this trick. But the criminals who carry out these scams are persuasive, effective, and persistent. They are experts at manipulation and will go to great lengths to manipulate victims.

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There are several places online where romance scams are orchestrated: online dating sites, social media networks, chat rooms and message-boards are commonly used for romance scams. Most people frequent these sites to some extent, so it’s difficult to avoid them outright.

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How to Protect Yourself:

• Be cautious when establishing any relationship online—romantic, platonic, or business oriented.

• Be mindful of any inconsistent details a person gives about themselves, especially if they live in another country.

• To confirm a person is using their real photo, search engines can be used to do a reverse image search to identify the source of the photo. There are also free programs online that an identify whether an image is AI generated.

• If anyone asks for your bank account information, card number, or digital payment information they are most likely targeting you with a romance scam. This is a major red flag and you should end communication with this person immediately.

• Never send person information, payment information, or funds to someone you’ve only interacted with online.