People looking for love online as Valentine’s Day approaches must beware of scammers, the National Anti-Scam Centre has warned.
The government’s Scamwatch received 484 reports of romance baiting scams in 2023 – more than one a day.
Although overall money losses to these scams almost halved in the past year, that still amounts to more than $40 million stolen that was reported to Scamwatch.
These scams disproportionately affect people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, accounting for more than 30 per cent and $12 million of total losses last year.
Australians aged over 55 years old suffered the highest individual losses to romance baiting scams in 2023.
“Scammers are cold-hearted criminals who are looking to exploit people’s emotions in order to take their money,” ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said.
“We are urging people to not take financial or investment advice from someone you have only met online. Even if you think you know who you are messaging, remember that it could be a scammer on the other side of the screen.”
She said scammers would spend weeks and months messaging their victim, making them feel like they’ve formed a genuine connection before shifting the conversation to investment or cryptocurrency opportunities.
“Ultimately, these ‘opportunities’ turn out to be investment scams, leaving the victim not only broken-hearted but out of pocket by significant amounts of money,” Lowe said.
Romance scammers typically meet with their selected victim on social media or a dating app and will soon ask to move the conversation to a free, encrypted messaging platform – such as Google Hangouts, WhatsApp, WeChat, or Line.
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After a couple of weeks of close online contact, including multiple messages a day, often professing affection, the scammer will begin to talk about investment opportunities, such as cryptocurrency.
They will offer to guide the victim through a small initial investment, before keeping the pressure on them to “top up” their account.
When the victim stops cooperating or runs out of money, the scammer breaks off contact – or demand more money so the victim can “access” the funds already “invested”.
Tips for stopping scammers
- Don’t give personal information or act on investment advice from someone you have only met online.
- Don’t feel pressured to invest. If you have any doubts, stop communicating with them.
- Ask yourself if you really know who you are communicating with? Scammers can use different profile pictures and lie about who they really are, especially online.
- Do an internet search of the person’s name or photo to see if it’s a scam.
- Act quickly if something feels wrong. Contact your bank immediately if you have invested money. Help others by reporting scams to Scamwatch.
