There is a popular documentary on Netflix titled “The Tinder Swindler.” It’s about three women who were being romanced — meaning “separated from their money” — by the same man, although each believed they were in an exclusive relationship. They also believed he was the son of a billionaire diamond dealer.
Alas, once again, the 1993 cartoon from The New Yorker proves true: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”
Forbes Advisor, a finance advice Internet site (www.forbes.com/advisor), decided to find out how costly these schemes can be. So it turned to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center for nationwide data over the past five years (2017-2021).
As it turned out, California topped the list, with 12,205 victims losing just over $516 million. That works out to $42,300 per victim.
Florida was in second place — but with nearly half the number of victims, 6,980. The individual loss was just under $27,000.
Texas came in third, but basically tied for second with only 12 victims fewer than Florida’s total. New York, with 4,658 victims, ranked fourth.
Overall, for the five year period, a Forbes Advisor spokesman said “86,422 Americans fell victim to romance scams and $2.3 billion was the overall financial hit victims took to their pockets because of the scams.”
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In February, the Federal Trade Commission released a report saying romance scams took more money from people than any other fraud category. The losses for 2021 were six times the reported losses from 2017. And 2021 was a record year — 80% higher than 2020.
“Many people who’ve experienced scams report being contacted on dating apps,” the report said. But that’s not always the case.
“Reports of unexpected private messages on social media platforms are common. More than a third of people who said they lost money to an online romance scam in 2021 said it began on Facebook or Instagram,” the report noted.
Romance scams aren’t limited to just one age group, either. In 2021, the number of scams increased for each age group. The increase was “most striking,” the report found, for people ages 18 to 29 — a tenfold-plus increase from 2017 to 2021.
The FTC report concludes with some tips on romance scams:
- “Nobody legit will ever ask you to help by sending cryptocurrency, giving the numbers on a gift card, or by wiring money. Anyone who does is a scammer.”
- “Never send or forward money for someone you haven’t met in person, and don’t act on their investment advice.”
- “Talk to friends or family about a new love interest and pay attention if they’re concerned.”
- “Try a reverse-image search of profile pictures. If the details don’t match up, it’s a scam.”
Suspicious profiles or messages should be reported to the dating app or social media platform, and also reported to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
To learn more, visit the FTC’s website: ftc.gov/romancescams.
Lonnie Brown can be reached at LedgerDatabase@aol.com.
