Earlier this year a French woman hit the headlines when it emerged she’d been conned to the tune of €830,000 (around £700,000) by a scammer impersonating Brad Pitt.
The 53-year-old interior designer confessed that she’d been duped into believing she was in a relationship with the Hollywood A-lister for 18 months. Romance fraud – where someone is persuaded to give money to a person they’ve never met but believe they’re in a relationship with – has soared by 49% for 55-64 year-olds.
According to data published in 2024 by Lloyds Bank, the scam is mostly perpetrated online. It's aimed at people on dating sites, social media and even gaming platforms. Fraudsters target those looking for love, investing time in gaining their trust, before eventually convincing them to send money.
While those aged under 65 are the most susceptible to the fraud, the same study found those aged 65-74 lost the most money – an average of £13,123 to the criminals.
What’s on this page:UK Finance’s Fraud and Cybercrime Lead, Paul Maskall, has studied how fraudsters create an emotional bond with their victims before asking them for money. “People don’t ‘fall for’ this kind of scam, they are emotionally manipulated into it.
When you have strong feelings for someone, it is much harder to spot the red flags that something is not right and [the scam] being online gives your intuition less to go on,” Maskall says.
“Once they have established their victim’s trust, the criminal will then claim to be experiencing a problem, such as an issue with a visa, health [problems] or flight tickets and ask for money to help. “They appeal to people’s human decency. After all, if you love someone, you want to help and look after them. For those who may be lonely or isolated, this emotional manipulation can be particularly effective.”
The criminals don’t usually ask for money straight away: instead they spend time communicating and building trust. Even then, they may initially only ask for a small amount of money, which then leads to increasing demands.
UK Finance’s Take Five To Stop Fraud campaign was created to protect people from scams such as these. In the first six months of 2024, it found that victims lost as much as £14.5m in romance scams, making an average of 11 payments to the scammer during their ‘relationship’. Lisa Webb, Consumer Law Expert for Which?, said: "Data shows over-55s are more likely to [be a] victim of romance fraud.
Which? has previously uncovered romance scammers posing as widowers on social media to attempt to befriend and groom potential victims.” Metro Bank’s Head of Fraud & Investigations, Baz Thompson, recalls one 73-year-old customer who lost many thousands to a woman he’d built a relationship with over email and telephone.
“The first payment request was for a few hundred pounds – he was happy to help as she seemed in genuine need. By the time he started to get suspicious, he had made over 80 payments in less than six months and had lost nearly £57,000.” The bank was able to help him recover £31,000, but he lost the rest.
If you’re worried someone you know is a victim of romance fraud, you can call police on 101. You can also contact Crimestoppers anonymously. Crimestoppers also has lots of useful information about how to spot the signs, and examples of common types of romance scams.
Someone may be particularly vulnerable to romance scams if they are lonely, widowed or recently bereaved, or have suffered from a recent break up, or are suffering from depression.
You or your loved one can also get advice from Victim Support.
Take Five To Stop Fraud has these tips to help you stay safe:
In the first six months of 2024, UK Finance found banks refunded £9.4 million of the £14.5 million that was stolen by romance scammers – or 65% of the total. However, since those numbers were published, new rules have been introduced that should increase protection for the victims of romance scams – a type of authorised pushed payment fraud, where people are manipulated into making payments to fraudsters.
Giles Mason, head of Take 5 To Stop Fraud, says: “From 7 October last year, there are new rules around how banks and other payment service providers reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud, including romance scams.
These rules mean that reimbursement is mandatory in most cases.” However, despite the introduction of the new rules, it’s still important to take care when making payments and ensure the person they are sending money to is genuine. It is also important to heed any warnings issued by the bank ahead of transferring the money.
UK Finance has produced a guide to push payment fraud, which explains the new rules. Lisa Webb adds: “If you think you’ve been the victim of a scam, you should contact your bank in the first instance, before reporting it to Action Fraud. “Victims who think they’ve been unfairly refused a refund should contact the Financial Ombudsman Service to ask it to review their case.”
Romance fraud is a devastating crime that is costing people far more than just their money - but if this is putting you off looking for love or companionship, don’t be disheartened. It can be easy to blame yourself or feel ashamed, but Thames Valley Police emphasises that it’s never the fault of the victim, and that feeling ashamed can be a barrier to getting help and support.
The force has produced a practical support guide to help people minimise the feelings of blame and shame. Fran McSweeney, Head of National Services at Independent Age, said: “Dating or romance scams are cruel and can be very difficult to deal with.
Often, they take time, and the scammer has built up a relationship with the person, so it’s devastating when the deception is discovered. "It is always right to be wary of scams, but also to take heart in knowing that there are decent, honest and kind people out there.
By taking steps to protect yourself against scammers, it can be possible to meet someone special through online dating.”
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