Adults of all ages are going online in hopes of finding love and companionship. But seeking romantic bliss online can have a major downside: Cyberspace is full of scammers eager to take advantage of lonely hearts, and their ranks are growing. 

In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received a staggering 56,000 complaints regarding romance scams, surpassing the 2017 total by more than three times. Monetary losses from these fraudulent activities surged sixfold during the same period, reaching a total of $547 million.

The scam typically works something like this: You post a dating profile and up pops a promising match - good-looking, smart, funny, personable. Those claiming to be potential partners may initiate contact through social media platforms. The FTC reports that in 2021, more than a third of individuals who experienced financial losses due to romance scams revealed that the scams originated on Facebook or Instagram. These scammers typically utilize photos of an attractive person to carry out their schemes. 

This potential mate claims to live in another part of the country or abroad for business or military deployment. But he or she seems smitten and eager to get to know you better, and suggests you move your relationship to a private channel like email or chat app.

Over weeks or even months, you feel yourself growing closer. You make plans to meet in person, but for your new love, something always comes up. Then you get an urgent request. There's an emergency, a medical problem, or perhaps a business crisis, and your online companion needs you to send money fast, usually via gift card, prepaid debit cards, cryptocurrency, or a bank or wire transfer.

They'll promise to pay it back, but that will never happen. Instead, they will keep asking for more until you realize it's a scam and cut them off.

The older the target, the heavier the financial toll. The median individual loss from a romance scam for people ages 70 and over was $9,000 in 2021, according to the FTC, compared to $2,400 across all age groups.

Warning Signs:

• Your new romantic interest sends you a picture that looks more like a model from a fashion magazine than an ordinary snapshot.
• The person quickly wants to leave the dating website and communicate with you through email or instant messaging.
• They shower you with attention. Scammers frequently overwhelm potential targets with messages, emails, or phone calls as a tactic to draw you in.
• They repeatedly promise to meet in person but always come up with an excuse to cancel.
• They make a sudden request for money to deal with an emergency or make a sure-fire investment.

How to Protect Yourself from This Scam:

• Take it slowly. Ask your potential partner a lot of questions and watch for inconsistencies that might reveal an imposter.
• Talk to family and friends about a new love interest and pay attention if they have concerns.
• Check an online suitor's profile photo using Google's image search. If the same picture shows up elsewhere with a different name attached to it, that's a sign a scammer may have stolen it.
• Be wary of flirtatious or overly complimentary emails. Paste the text into a search engine and see whether the same words show up on websites devoted to exposing romance scams.
• Be wary even if you're the one who made first contact. Scammers flood dating websites with fake profiles and wait for victims to come to them.
• Limit the amount of personal information you provide in a dating profile or to someone you've chatted with only online. Scammers can exploit details like your last name or where you work to manipulate you or to commit identity theft.
• Don't send cash, cryptocurrency, or gift cards or put money on a reloadable debit card for someone you've only interacted with online - you'll never get it back.
• Cut off contact immediately if you begin to suspect that the individual may be a scammer.
• Notify the dating site or the maker of the dating app on which you met the scammer.

Originally posted by AARP adapted by IAACU.