Romance scams cost Americans over $1.16 billion in just the first nine months of 2025, according to the FTC — and losses continue to climb. These scams exploit emotional vulnerability, using fake relationships to steal money, personal data, and identities. Here's how to recognize the warning signs and protect yourself.
What Are Romance Scams?
A romance scam occurs when a fraudster creates a fake identity — typically on a dating app, social media platform, or messaging service — to build a romantic relationship with a victim. After weeks or months of building trust, the scammer manipulates the victim into sending money, sharing personal information, or investing in fraudulent schemes.
According to McAfee's 2026 research, 1 in 7 American adults (15%) have lost money to an online dating or romance scam. Nearly 60% of victims in 2025 said the scam started on a social media platform.
Anyone Can Be a Target
Romance scams don't discriminate by age, gender, or education level. While adults over 60 suffer the highest dollar losses, younger adults ages 18-44 report the highest volume of incidents. Men are actually more likely to report losing money (21%) compared to women (10%).
How Romance Scams Work
Most romance scams follow a predictable pattern:
1. Initial Contact
The scammer reaches out through a dating app, social media direct message, or even a "wrong number" text. Their profile is carefully crafted with attractive photos (often stolen or AI-generated) and a compelling backstory — typically a successful professional working overseas, a military service member deployed abroad, or a widowed single parent.
2. Love Bombing
The scammer quickly escalates the relationship with excessive compliments, constant messaging (sometimes 60+ messages per day), and declarations of deep feelings. This emotional intensity is designed to cloud your judgment and create a sense of connection before you've had time to verify who they really are.
3. Building Trust
Over weeks or months, the scammer shares personal stories, asks about your life, and creates a sense of intimacy. They may send gifts, make future plans, or introduce you to fake "family members" to seem legitimate.
4. The Ask
Eventually, a crisis occurs — a medical emergency, a business deal gone wrong, travel complications, or legal trouble. The scammer asks for money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers. The requests often start small and escalate over time.
5. Continued Manipulation
If you send money once, the scammer will create new emergencies to keep the money flowing. They may also use threats, guilt, or emotional manipulation to prevent you from cutting off contact.
New Tactics in 2026: AI-Powered Scams
Romance scammers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to make their schemes more convincing:
- AI-generated profile photos: Scammers now use AI to create entirely fictional faces that don't match any real person, making reverse image searches useless
- AI chatbots: McAfee Labs has detected surges in fake AI dating bots that can maintain conversations around the clock, responding with seemingly personalized messages
- Deepfake video calls: Scammers are beginning to use real-time deepfake technology to impersonate attractive individuals on video calls, overcoming the traditional advice to "insist on a video chat"
- AI-assisted messaging: Scammers use AI tools to craft more emotionally compelling and grammatically correct messages in multiple languages
Deepfake Red Flags
Even AI-generated video isn't perfect yet. Look for unnatural blinking, slight glitches around the hairline or ears, inconsistent lighting, and lips that don't perfectly sync with speech. Ask the person to make unexpected movements like turning their head quickly or placing their hand over their face.
Red Flags: How to Spot a Romance Scam
Watch for these warning signs in any online relationship:
- They can never meet in person: There's always an excuse — they're overseas, deployed, or traveling for work. They may also avoid or delay video calls
- The relationship moves unusually fast: Declarations of love within days or weeks, pressure to move communication off the dating app to a private channel
- Inconsistent details: Their story changes, or details about their job, location, or background don't add up
- They ask for money: Any request for money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers from someone you haven't met in person is a major red flag
- Sob stories and emergencies: Repeated crises that require your financial help — medical bills, legal fees, travel costs, business emergencies
- They want your personal information: Requests for your Social Security number, bank details, copies of your ID, or passwords
- No verifiable online presence: A lack of social media history, few connections, and a profile that was recently created
- Too-good-to-be-true profile: Model-quality photos paired with a high-status profession and a seemingly perfect personality
How to Protect Yourself
Verify Their Identity
- Reverse image search their profile photos using Google Images or TinEye (though this is less effective against AI-generated photos)
- Ask for a live video call early in the relationship. During the call, ask them to do something spontaneous like hold up a specific number of fingers
- Search their name and details online to verify their claimed job, education, and location
- Check for social media presence that shows a real history — not just a recently created profile with few friends or connections
Protect Your Information
- Never share your Social Security number, bank details, or copies of identification documents with someone you've met online
- Don't share your home address until you've met in person and established trust
- Use a separate email address for dating apps
- Be cautious about sharing photos that reveal identifying details about your location or lifestyle
Protect Your Finances
- Never send money to someone you haven't met in person — regardless of the reason
- Be especially wary of requests for wire transfers, cryptocurrency, or gift cards, which are difficult to trace or recover
- Don't invest in platforms or opportunities recommended by an online romantic interest
- Talk to a trusted friend or family member before sending money to anyone you've met online
What to Do If You've Been Scammed
- Stop all contact with the scammer immediately. Block them on all platforms
- Don't send more money, even if they threaten to expose personal information or photos
- Report the scam to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov
- Report the profile on the dating app or social media platform where you met them
- Contact your bank if you've sent money or shared financial information
- Monitor your credit and consider placing a fraud alert or credit freeze with all three bureaus
- Seek support: Romance scam victims often experience shame and isolation. Organizations like AARP's fraud helpline (877-908-3360) provide support
How PrivacyOn Helps Protect You
Romance scammers often use personal information found on data broker sites to research and target victims. By removing your information from 100+ data broker sites, PrivacyOn reduces the amount of personal data available for scammers to exploit.
PrivacyOn also provides dark web monitoring to alert you if your personal data appears in breaches, 24/7 scanning to catch new data exposures, and family plans starting at $8.33/month to protect up to 5 family members — including elderly relatives who are frequently targeted by romance scammers.
Protecting your personal data is one of the best preventive measures against all types of scams. The less information scammers can find about you online, the harder it is for them to craft a convincing con.