PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It’s the season of love and also a very lucrative one for scams by those willing to take advantage of the perceived romance in the air.
The FBI’s Philadelphia office is out with a public warning for Valentine’s Day all about these romance scams.
They go like this: A victim is contacted by someone through social media or a dating app who pretends to be interested in them. An online relationship quickly develops. The victim, believing they’re in a trusting relationship, is tricked into sending money, gift cards or personal information to the scammer.
FBI Special Agent Joe Wolfley says these scammers are good at what they do.
“They may have already researched who you are, based off of open source research on your social media or anything else out there about you on the Internet and they'll really start using what they found to really build up your confidence and make it seem like: ‘Wow, this person really cares,’” he said. “It kind of really starts to cascade from there.”
The scammers also don’t always work alone, and can be part of big fraud rings located in foreign countries.
“These individuals do have entire call centers,” said Wolfley. “They have multiple people in these call centers who are just going through social media and other social media apps.”
FBI data from 2022, shows more 19,000 victims across the United States reported losing more than $700 million to romance scams.
To avoid becoming a victim, the FBI advises the public to think twice before sharing personal information online.
It also suggests searching for the names, photos and other information used on suspected scammer accounts to see if they’re used elsewhere.
If you are the victim of a romance scam, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.