Average financial loss to romance scams is almost £12,000
People looking for love online are being warned to remain vigilant in the face of romance scams, as the average financial loss for victims is nearly £12,000.
According to Nationwide Building Society, the average amount of money victims are losing through romance scams has more than doubled from £4,720 in 2021 to £11,796 in 2022.
As the average UK earner makes roughly £33,000 a year, the average amount lost to romance scams would account for almost two fifths of their annual salary.
A romance scam is when fraudsters hide behind fake dating profiles to form relationships with unsuspecting victims online, gaining their trust and eventually conning them out of their personal information and money.
Last year, male victims lost an average of £9,057 to such scams with women typically conned out of £14,803.
According to Nationwide Building Society, the number of romance scams reported in 2022 dropped 17% from the previous year, which may be a result of increased awareness of online scams.
Rhiannon Philps, a personal finance expert at NerdWalletcomments “Although the number of romance scams being reported in 2022 declined, it’s evident that criminals continue to exploit online daters for financial gain.
“Scammers are experts at impersonation, which is why they target dating apps and social media to create false profiles and deceive someone feeling lonely or looking for love online.
“Romance scammers will often use an endearing tone and come up with a moving story to make their victims feel special and distracted from the fact they are being scammed.”
It’s crucial that anyone looking for romance online is able to recognise the signs of a scam to avoid falling victim:
1 Vague or few images on their profile
Romance scammers will often impersonate someone else to keep their identity hidden and may only have access to a couple of images on their profile.
There may also only be close up images of the individual, as opposed to numerous images from different angles like on a legitimate dating profile.
2 Quick to profess love
Romance scammers will often admit their love fairly quickly and express strong feelings in a short period of time as a way to exploit and manipulate victims emotionally.
3 Ask for money
It’s a big red flag if an online love interest asks for money before you’ve even met in person, and it’s likely they’re attempting to scam their victim.
Romance scammers are skilled at making up believable stories as to why they need money from their victims. These include paying for travel, medical bills, debts, or other emergency payments.
4 Urgent tone that requests immediate action
Scammers will try to guilt trip individuals into transferring money, often prompting them to act instantly by making out it’s an emergency. This is to play on the emotions of the person receiving the message and encourage them to take action and respond.
They also often get frustrated and defensive if victims refuse to help.
5 Ask for sensitive information
Scammers will often ask for some form of sensitive information, whether it’s financial information like bank details, or personal information such as full name, date of birth, or a home address.
