While Valentine’s Day is a happy holiday for many, it also marks the day when the lonely are at their lowest. Just as it is destined to be full of red roses, heart-shaped candy, and cheesy greeting cards, Valentine’s Day is fated to bring down the isolated
and prey on the vulnerable. Which makes it a prime time to bring awareness to the flurry of romance scams taking place, and keep those susceptible lonely hearts vigilant.
Johnathan Frost, director, global advisory at BioCatch, stated: “Romance fraud often involves a form of coercive control, with the offender engaging in a pattern of abuse that uses tactics to hurt, humiliate, intimidate, exploit, isolate, and dominate the
victim. Romance fraudsters traditionally created a situation where the victim felt obligated to offer them financial support. Typically, this involved designing a “crisis” that could be addressed with a loan or direct financial support.”
According to the
UK Finance 2024 Annual Fraud Report, romance scam payments increased 31% in 2023 with an average of ten payments per case, and is up 200% since 2020. Authorised romance scams are at the highest level since 2020, 75% of authorised push payment (APP) fraud
cases originate online. Alarmingly, after purchase scams, romance scams are the most common types of
APP fraud.
Santander Breaks the Spell for lovelorn victims
Designed to protect hopeful lovers from online scams,
Santander UK’s Breaking the Spell team works diligently to prevent their customers from falling victim to fraud. The Breaking the Spell team is based in Liverpool, and handles roughly 50-100 cases daily, dealing from all sorts of cons from phishing to investment
scams, but mostly romance fraud.
The team speaks directly to their consumers who are at risk of falling for scams, APP fraud, and identifying other forms of coercion to transfer money to illicit sources.
Speaking to Chris Ainsley, head of fraud risk management at Santander, he stated that the team has prevented fraud up to £17 million since their inception in 2021.
All 23 members of the team have a background in fraud investigation. “The Breaking the Spell team became highest tier of what we wanted, as at first we had people dealing with fraud victims, but we didn't have it all in one place. We didn't have our best
team who could speak to customers all in one area with a multi-skill capability. It isn’t just people in a contact center having a chat with you about your fraud. This is something where we can do a lot more with the customers. The main reason we came to
the sort of realisation, that this was very important, was that we often knew when payments were fraudulent. We knew what was going on, even if that's as simple as the customers told us something that we know is wrong, because we know that that would never
really happen.”
Providing an example of a case they were handling that day, Ainsley explained how the team had flagged an unusual transaction with a customer who spent £1000 at their local grocery store on gift cards, and upon calling the customer they stated their intention
to take photos of the gift cards to share on WhatsApp to a person they are in a relationship with. Ainsley pointed out that the transaction itself was unusual, hence it was declined, and the call made it clear that the customer was a victim of a romance scam.
Ainsley stated that the most intensive cases could take months of conversations with the customer to tear them away from the fraudster’s (emotional) clutches.
“They team needs to understand how to manage a customer at a time of real vulnerability. There's a huge amount of skill that's involved with that, and also huge amount of knowledge. This is one of the toughest jobs emotionally that you can have in the organisation.
It is a tough job, and they do it excellently, every day,”
Other than romance scams, the Breaking the Spell team also deals with a lot of investment scams, celebrity-fronted cryptocurrency scams, clone scams, and job scams. Ainsley stated that romance scams take up most of their time, as it is easier to debunk job
scams or impersonations of the police or authorities by speaking to the customer a few times and directing them to resources or a family member for guidance. With romance scams, however, the issue lies in people being unwilling to believe that they are being
tricked, and the need to have multiple conversations to convince them of the fraud.
What romance scams are afoot?
According to
Action Fraud Claims Advice, romance fraud has cost UK victims £400 million in the last five years. There were 232, 429 APP fraud cases in 2023, with a loss of £459.7 million, of which £287.3 million was returned to the victims. In 2023, there was £36.5
million lost to romance scams, the highest volume ever reported, and the averaging of ten payments per case indicates that the criminal convinced the victim to make multiple smaller payments over a longer period.
Silvija Krupena, director of financial intelligence at RedCompass Labs, stated that pig-butchering scams, which I covered in
last year’s romance fraud update, are leading to major losses. The killer cocktail of crypto resurgence, economic crisis, and AI technology has created a vulnerable social environment ripe for catfishing.
Frost added that the amount of cryptocurrency investment scams has become more sophisticated, by deceiving the victims that they are making returns and convincing them to slowly increasing the amount their investing.
Marko Maras, CEO and founder of fraud prevention firm Trustfull, detailed: “The most successful scammers don’t rush. They adopt a ‘slow-burn’ approach, carefully nurturing online relationships over weeks or even months before making their move. When the time
is right, the ask is usually linked to a fake medical emergency, a golden investment opportunity, or a sudden family crisis.”
In 2023, 84% of all romance scams originated online and 63% were reimbursed.
Your catfish could be AI
The
Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report found that 54% of British individuals on dating apps have engaged with suspicious profiles or messages at least once a week, and 81% targeted have lost money to them, £1008 on average. Individuals aged 40 to 60 were most
targeted, though youths were also duped through dating apps. According to
Statista, 36% of 18-24 year olds admit that loneliness makes them more vulnerable while online dating, and more susceptible to risks.
Greg Hancell, head of fraud at Lynx, cited that 11.1 million people in the UK used dating apps in 2023, which is prokected to reach 12 million in 2028. Hancell expounded: "As more people turn to digital platforms for companionship, fraudsters have capitalised
on this trend, using increasingly sophisticated techniques to deceive and exploit victims. Additionally, the algorithmic approach leads to new people being amplified and therefore sticking out to criminals who target people new to online dating and the apps
as they are still learning what to look out for.
"A decade ago, if someone had met a romantic partner online but had never spoken to them on the phone or via video call, it would have been an immediate red flag if they asked them for money. Now, with
GenAI and deepfake technology, which enable anyone to impersonate someone else in many ways we would normally communicate criminals can build up trust with their victim. For example, by messages,
by video or even by audio. This allows scammers to establish long-term emotional connections, making their deception even more convincing."
Maras indicated that the pickup in online dating since COVID has curated an environment for fraudsters to flourish, where it is easy for conners to make false profiles and target those specifically looking for companionship, however
ID verification on dating apps are attempting to limit the catfishing potential.
Frost stated: “Just as legitimate businesses are using GenAI to boost productivity, criminals are using these technologies to scale their fraud operations.
Research on large language models (LLMs) in personalised phishing attacks found that AI-generated scams achieved a staggering 54% click-through rate (CTR)—matching human fraudsters but at a fraction of the cost.
When AI was combined with human expertise, the CTR jumped even higher to 56%, demonstrating the dangerous efficiency of these tools.”
Maras added: “For instance, do you know those calls from unfamiliar numbers in remote locations, where all you hear is silence when you pick up? One possible reason for them is that fraudsters could be recording and sampling your voice, feeding it into an
AI-powered generator to create highly realistic deepfake audio. These fake voice notes can then be used to deceive loved ones or to trick a victim of a romance scam.
“The reality is that generative AI has become so advanced that we can no longer automatically trust what we see or hear online. As fraudsters become more sophisticated, it’s crucial for individuals to exercise extra caution, and for messaging and social
media platforms to implement stronger verification measures to identify and block scammers early on.”
Krupena added: “With AI farming, criminals can scale these operations using AI-generated profiles and voice clones to create eerily lifelike interactions. Then there’s the rise of AI chatbot ‘girlfriends’ or ‘boyfriends’. These are designed to emotionally
entangle users before they extract money through subscriptions or direct fraud. Sextortion also remains a serious and growing threat, especially for minors, who are coerced into sharing explicit content that is later weaponised for blackmail.
“Meanwhile,
deepfake technology is making deception even more dangerous. Scammers can now create ultra-realistic fake videos and audio, as seen in the recent €830,000 Brad Pitt
deepfake scam. These evolving tactics demonstrate how fraudsters are weaponising trust and emotions to cause lasting financial and psychological harm.”
What regulation is in place to combat romance fraud?
There are
AML rules and
regulations in place to combat scams and fraud in the EU and the UK. The UK Payments System Regulator requires financial institutions to compensate victims up to £85,000 for transactions not made via cryptocurrency or internationally. Maras pointed to the
UK
Confirmation of Payee and
Verification of Payee schemes as services that prevent fraud by authenticating the recipient.
Frost detailed how banks are increasing their fraud capabilities to flag down suspicious activity and identify when victims are unknowingly engaging in APP scams or money mule situations. He highlighted that behavioural analysis has seen progress with banks
in Australia, one of which blocked AUS $50 million in fraudulent payments, but it is for more banks to identify how customers’ behaviours change over time as fraudsters socially engineer situations to control them.
Krupena emphasised that more pressure should be placed on social media to combat scams and fraud that run rampant on their platforms: “Social media platforms like
Meta must do more, as most fraud originates on
Facebook and Instagram. Where are the awareness campaigns, misinformation labels, and warnings for high-risk content like dubious investment advice, marketplace scams, and fake job offers? Banks struggle to detect socially engineered scams because victims
believe their payments are legitimate. True change requires a united effort from social media, banks, regulators, and law enforcement.”
Keep safe from romance scams - everyone is susceptible
It is hard to know when you are being scammed at times, as AI technology is now able to pose as your loved ones, and fraudsters are well-trained in what they do. Their aim is to build up trust with the victim to take more money over time – so stay vigilant
against these warnings.
Maras advised to never send money to someone you haven’t met in person, and Krupena stated that if you face the misfortune of falling victim to a romance scam, don’t be embarrassed – the tech is sophisticated and it could happen to anyone. Be sure to report
it and get reimbursed.
Frost concluded: “Research shows that romance fraudsters seek to strike a balance between the romantic and financial aspects of the communication, helping them hide their criminal intent. Be alert to the use of language that creates a strong emotional response
and question any attempts to isolate you from sources of support such as friends and family. Romance fraud is a financially and emotionally devastating crime that uses grooming strategies that try and prevent victims from using logic or reason to protect themselves.
For those who are doubtful about the relationship you are in, please seek support.”