You smell the red roses in the store. You see heart-shaped boxes of chocolate everywhere. Valentine’s Day is almost here.
But if you’re single, experts warn you may be especially vulnerable right now to falling victim to a romance scam.
This type of fraud is surging, and scammers are using dating apps and social media to target people looking for love.
Inside the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston, the agency is seeing more and more local cases.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission said nationally, it opened more than 65,000 cases of romance scams with a total loss of $3 billion. The average loss per victim is about $5,000 each.
According to the FTC, romance scams continue to be one of the costliest forms of fraud nationwide.
Leah Napoliello, Vice President of Investigations for the Better Business Bureau of Greater Houston, says the scam often begins with what appears to be the perfect match.
“So basically what happens is people go on these dating apps or social media sometimes too,” Napoliello explained. “They find someone who looks like a wonderful catch, they’re very wealthy, extremely good looking. They develop a rapport with them over time, which could be a couple of weeks or months.”
Eventually, she says, the scammer creates a crisis.
“Then eventually, this individual they’re talking with, they start saying they have an emergency, something’s going on in their lives where suddenly they need money at the last minute. So they ask you for money at that point, and you feel like you’ve developed a relationship with them, that they’re your boyfriend or girlfriend, so you’re willing to give them money to help them out.”
Napoliello said a key warning sign is the fact that many of these relationships exist entirely online.
“You’re not meeting them face to face, and that’s part of the problem here,” Napoliello said. “They will often say that they can’t meet with you because they’re overseas. If you try to even do a video chat with them, they say they’re unavailable. So it can be very difficult to know who you’re really talking with.”
Officials say romance fraud can be emotionally devastating and financially draining. Tens of thousands of people are falling victim each year, losing thousands of dollars, and in some cases, far more.
Experts advise never sending money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers to someone you’ve never met in person, no matter how convincing their story may seem.