Top Lies Told by Romance Scammers
03/01/2023
By: Fidelity Bank via FTC
Data released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sheds light on the lies that romance scammers use to take advantage of people—lies that cost nearly 70,000 consumers some $1.3 billion in 2022.
The number one lie told by romance scammers was that they needed money because a friend or relative was sick, hurt, or in jail. This lie was used in nearly 25% of scam reports filed with the FTC.
The second most common lie was that the scammer had great investment advice to share. Almost equally common was the lie that the scammer was in the military. Believe it or not, people are still being scammed – very frequently – with the lie that someone needs help making some sort of important delivery.
The data also shows a tactic being used more and more often by romance scammers. Scammers convince a consumer to share explicit photos, and then threaten to share those photos with the consumer’s social media contacts. These reports have increased more than eightfold in the past three years, with consumers the ages of 18 to 29 most commonly targeted.
The first contact with a scammer is often through Facebook or other social media. The scammer will usually push to move to other messaging apps to avoid detection. Scammers are increasingly requesting cryptocurrency as the form of payment – for the first time, the data shows this source of payment is requested more often than any other form.
Source: FTC press release Feb 2023. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-romance-scams