Romance Scam

There are some common lies scammers tell in romance scams. For example, they claim they are traveling abroad, they’re on a ship or in the military, and, as a result, can’t meet you in person. Sometimes, scammers ask to pay for their visa or cover some sort of fee to get out of trouble. 

For example, fraudsters also pretend that they have medical expenses that need to be urgently covered. Such fraudsters are keen on investment scams; for example, they pretend to help you invest in crypto. Additionally, there are wire scams, where the fraudsters ask the victim to transfer money through fintech apps or put money on gift cards like Amazon. 

To actually receive the money from their victims, scammers use different tactics.

Some examples of how romance scammers deceive their victims include:

• Love-bombing. Criminals intentionally give compliments, lots of affection, and huge promises to trick the victim into thinking that their relationship is real. 
• Scripted stories. Scammers use the same effective stories or scripted conversations, sometimes to the point where they record a single video just to send it out later to multiple victims.
• Small gifts. Fraudsters often show their appreciation by sending out small gifts to maintain trust and emotional connections. This helps ease things off for them before asking the victim for money. 

For dating app users, the best way to avoid falling victim to fraud is to never send money or gifts to someone you haven’t met in person. If you feel like you’re talking to a fraudster online, don’t communicate with them anymore. Ask for more objective advice from your close friends regarding what they think about the new love interest. Try to research them and look for any other red flags. Do a reverse image search of their profile picture. Sometimes, another person pops up, which means the scammer created a fake identity. 

If you suspect becoming a romance scam victim, contact your bank immediately. As a customer, you can request a refund. Additionally, organizations like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recommend reporting the scam and notifying the dating app that you’ve used to communicate with the fraudster. 

Banks and other financial institutions monitor transactions and suspicious customer behavior to prevent money laundering, terrorism financing and other fraud forms, including romance scams. 

Some red flags that companies should consider paying attention to when preventing such fraud include:

• Large transactions, cross-border transfers and other unusual transaction patterns. 
• Sudden requests for large sums of money, supposedly due to an emergency or a romantic motive. 
• Multiple parties sending money to the same source, especially when there are no connections between them.
• Atypical financial behavior, for example, if the customer suddenly starts spending more. 
• Unusual withdrawals, especially if it was an inactive account that starts to make large transfers and withdrawals. 
• Suspicious crypto loans, especially if they are used to wire money to various virtual asset service providers (VASPs). 

Artificial intelligence is an advanced technology that many companies now use to combat fraud and spot red flags in real-time, instead of manually screening high-volume data. For example, AI-powered risk assessment software can help regulated entities and other firms to apply a risk-based approach and assess customer risk profiles automatically, detecting risky users, including fraudsters, and maintaining an effective fraud risk management system.