Steve Weisman is a lawyer, college professor, author, and one of the country’s leading experts in cybersecurity, identity theft, and scams. See Steve’s other Con Watch articles.
Romance scams are a major problem, and they are only getting worse. In this scam, a con artist convinces someone that they are in love with them. Once the scammer has created an emotional connection and gained the victim’s trust, they start asking for money under a variety of pretenses. In 2022, Americans lost $1.3 billion to romance scams, a substantial increase from 2021 when losses were $547 million.
The use of A.I. for deepfake videos and voice cloning has made these scams even more convincing. In 2022, a Nigerian cybercriminal gang known as the “Yahoo Boys” began using artificial intelligence to change their facial features in short video chats to appear to be the person they were posing as in the romance scam. Since 2024, as technology has evolved, they have been using advanced A.I. to face swap on video calls, holding long conversations with their targeted victims, appearing as whatever phony persona they have inhabited. They also use A.I. voice technology to change their voice and accent to fool the victim.
While anyone can be the victim of a romance scam, according to the FBI, the elderly, women, and people who have been widowed are particularly vulnerable. According to the FTC, since 2019 approximately half of the reported instances of the romance scam have started on social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram, rather than on dating sites.
Scammers have also been combining romance scams with celebrity imposter scams, where the crook convinces the victim that they are involved with a celebrity who for some reason needs their money. One Argentinian woman sent more than $15,000 to someone using A.I. videos to impersonate George Clooney.
In recent years the romance scam has evolved: The scammer tells his victim that they have inside knowledge about investing, often in cryptocurrencies, and directs the victim to a phony website that purports to be a legitimate cryptocurrency trading site. Not long after “investing” in the cryptocurrencies, the victim soon finds that there is no investment and that they have lost all of their money. This scam originated in China in 2019 and is called sha zhu pan or pig butchering. The name is derived from the practice of luring victims, “fattening them up” by convincing them to continually “invest” more money, and then stealing all of the money.
Commenting on this trend, New York Attorney General Letitia James said, “Sophisticated fraudsters are increasingly using dating apps and social media to trick users into bogus investment schemes. The personal and sometimes romantic nature of these scams can often leave their victims feeling ashamed and isolated.”
How to Avoid Romance Scams
- Be skeptical of anyone who falls in love with you quickly online without ever meeting you, and then asks you to send money to assist them with a wide range of phony emergencies or too-good-to-be-true opportunities.
- If their social media profile picture looks too professional and the person looks too much like a model, you should be wary. You can check on the legitimacy of photographs or video images by seeing if they have been used elsewhere by doing a reverse image search using Google Images or TinEye.
- No celebrities are reaching out online to people they have never met to start romantic relationships. Tom Hanks, Tyler Perry, or Channing Tatum are not falling in love with you.
- Before investing with anyone, you should investigate the person through the FINRA’s Central Registration Depository. This will tell you if the broker is licensed and if there have been disciplinary procedures against them. You can also check with your own state’s securities regulation office for similar information. Many investment advisers will not be required to register with the FINRA but are required to register with your individual state’s securities regulators.
- Never invest in something that you do not completely understand. You may want to check out the SEC’s investor education website. Scammers can be very convincing, and it may sound like there is a great opportunity for someone to make some money, but you must be careful that the person making money is not the scam artist taking yours.
Become a Saturday Evening Post member and enjoy unlimited access. Subscribe now
Comments
Rule of thumb: Don’t respond to anything on the internet by any means unless you first initiate the contact, then check the website carefully where you’re responding to. Never answer a cold email. Use common sense.
I have been in a romance scam and after I lost the funds was contacted by someone saying they could recover the funds about a month later, but needed seed money to start the transaction. This contact is a victim and knows an “expert” and starts a group chat to get things going
So much of your expert advice really does come down to common sense and having to assume something’s fake AI along with anything else presented, unless proven otherwise.
I can only imagine the scammer criminals will only be intensifying their wicked games as Valentine’s Day approaches in the coming weeks.