Security News > 2021 > September > FBI: $113 million lost to online romance scams this year
The FBI warned today that a massive spike of online romance scams this year caused Americans to lose more than $113 million since the start of 2021.
The scammers behind this type of online fraud trend - which can lead to significant financial losses and devastating emotional scars - use fake online identities to gain potential victims' trust on dating or social media platforms.
"The FBI warns of a rising trend in which scammers are defrauding victims via online romance scams, persuading individuals to send money to allegedly invest or trade cryptocurrency," the federal law enforcement agency said in a PSA published today on the Internet Crime Complaint Center site.
"From January 1, 2021 - July 31, 2021, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received over 1,800 complaints, related to online romance scams, resulting in losses of approximately $133,400,000."
The 2019 and 2020 Internet Crime Reports published by FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center show that romance scams have tens of thousands of Americans to lose more than $1 billion.
The FBI also warned romance scam victims that they're facing the risk of being recruited as money mules and persuaded to transfer money illegally on scammers' behalf.