FBI warns of ‘romance scammers’

The FBI is warning Americans to be on the lookout for scammers targeting people seeking romantic relationships.

So-called romance scams are a perennial threat, but the social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic could make people especially vulnerable, the FBI said.

A notice posted on the agency’s website last week warned that scammers in this category “take advantage of people looking for companionship or romantic partners on dating websites, apps, chat rooms, and social networking sites with the sole goal of obtaining access to their financial or personal identifying information.”

More than 23,000 complaints relating to such scams were reported to the FBI in 2020, with losses totaling about $605 million.

Those losses “are most likely much higher as many victims are hesitant to report being taken advantage of due to embarrassment, shame, or humiliation,” the agency said.

“The consequences of these scams are often financially and emotionally devastating to victims who rarely get their money back and may not have the ability to recover from the financial loss,” Joseph Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, said in the notice. “While we recognize that it may be embarrassing for victims to report this type of fraud, it’s important to do so, so that the FBI and our law enforcement partners can do everything in our power to ensure these online imposters are held accountable.”

A report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last year found that romance scams have roughly tripled in frequency since 2015. Financial losses resulting from romance scams represented the highest losses from any type of fraud reported to the FTC in 2018 and 2019, the agency said. In 2020, losses reported to the FTC from romance scams totaled $304 million.