Romance scammers tricked folks out of £90m final 12 months as criminals broke hearts

Romance scammers tricked folks out of £90million final 12 months as criminals broke hearts and financial institution balances.

Ahead of Valentine’s Day tomorrow, analysis has revealed an epidemic of affection seekers falling sufferer to crime. Romance fraud is when individuals are defrauded into sending cash to criminals who’ve gained their belief and satisfied them that they’re in a real relationship.

In 2023, £88,312,382 was misplaced based on figures from the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau launched to the Liberal Democrats. That is almost £242,000 daily. On common, these falling sufferer to faux romances are dropping greater than £10,000 every. Scams concentrating on love seekers have been growing, with 8,608 experiences of romance fraud made throughout England and Wales in 2023 – up 8% from the variety of experiences in 2022.

Reports of romance scams involving male victims jumped by 40% between 2022 and 2023, based on separate evaluation by Nationwide. The constructing society’s discovered ladies lose greater than males, with the typical 2023 declare for girls standing at £10,610, in contrast with a mean of £8,181 for males.

Criminals’ techniques can embrace pretending to ship a sufferer a present from abroad after which forcing them to ship them faux customs charges, or pretending to be within the army and claiming bogus military funds. Romance scammers are additionally utilizing techniques reminiscent of placing stress on victims to make faux insurance coverage claims, the The Insurance Fraud Bureau yesterday warned.

Lib Dem Home Affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael, who uncovered the information, stated: “Finding love in the age of online dating is hard enough without the real fear of being left with both a broken heart and a broken bank balance. People searching for a partner to share their life with deserve to feel confident that they aren’t falling victim to cruel fraudsters. Instead, thanks to this Conservative government’s sheer incompetence and their failure to crack down on online scams, these fraudsters can vanish into the sunset with eye watering sums of money while leaving a trail of devastation behind them.”

Campaigner Anna Rowe, who arrange Catch the Catfish six years in the past after being a sufferer of a romance rip-off, stated curiosity in romance fraud has “rocketed” within the final 12 months. “I must stress that in the past year I have seen a huge change when we’ve been talking to police. There’s still a long way to go with some police forces but there’s more and more that I hear all the time where excellent work is being done and that’s really encouraging,” she stated.

“The ones that aren’t so forthcoming to the banks. Their response to victims can be really damaging – sometimes making out that they’re the fraudsters and blocking their accounts, when they’re clearly victims.”

Ms Rowe has since additionally co-founded LoveSaid with Cecilie Fjellhøy, who featured within the Netflix documentary The Tinder Swindler, which instructed the story of Israeli conman Simon Leviev who scammed ladies out of tens of millions of {dollars}. The organisation helps individuals who suppose they could have been defrauded and delivers coaching to police and monetary establishments on romance fraud.

Lisa Mills, Romance Fraud Expert on the charity Victim Support stated: “Romance fraud is remarkably common – but sadly there’s a lot of shame and stigma around it. We’ve supported people who have lost life changing amounts of money but are too embarrassed to tell their friends or family what has happened.

“Others have become too afraid to go back online or have stopped wanting to leave their house altogether. People need to understand that romance fraudsters are skilled manipulators. Those who are targeted must never blame themselves.”

The authorities has this week launched an anti-fraud marketing campaign to assist folks defend themselves in opposition to crime. The Stop! Think Fraud marketing campaign, which began on Monday, features a new web site with fraud security recommendation and adverts on billboards, broadcast and social media.

Fraud accounts for about 40% of all crime in England and Wales, at a price of £6.8billion to society, the Home Office stated. A Home Office spokeswoman stated: “Valentine’s Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness of a deceitful and distressing crime type, but romance fraud happens throughout the year and we encourage everyone to familiarise themselves with our campaign’s safety advice.”

But Labour’s Attorney General Emily Thornberry stated: “Under this Tory Government there has been an almost eightfold increase in the amount of fraud, from around 400,000 offences per year to 3.2 million, and the losses to the UK as a whole have grown from £38.4billion per year to £219billion. After 14 years spent sleepwalking through the escalation of the crisis, launching an ad campaign in response is the definition of too little, too late.”

If you think you have been a victim of romance fraud, visit victimsupport.org.uk where you can get in touch via live chat or by calling a free 24/7 Supportline.