The day of Valentine, 14th of February is expected to be a love day. However, it is the beginning of a nightmare of finances and emotions of thousands of people annually. The number of romance scams being witnessed is on the rise across the globe and with cybercriminals Becoming increasingly advanced, agencies such as the FBI in the US and the UK police forces are sending out alarms to be cautious of scams on the internet in the most romantic season of the year.
Romance Scams Cost Victims Over a Billion Dollars
The magnitude of this issue is humiliating. In 2023, a report by the US Federal Trade Commission approximated that romance scams in the United States alone cost the victims more than a billion dollars. That number is only the reported cases, the actual number is most assuredly bigger because there are many victims that do not report them due to shame or embarrassment.
According to experts of Planet VPN, a VPN provider with the emphasis on providing free services, these kinds of scams have only become more common and advanced as of 2023. This is because they work. Fraudsters form an online identity on dating websites and social media and establish emotional relationships during weeks or months before using that trust to get money.
In February 2026, a local cybercriminal was apprehended in Nigeria by the police due to supposedly committing a major romance scam. On Facebook and Instagram, the man identified himself as a doctor of the US with the name of Travis Kevin. He requested victims to remit funds to be used as medical supplies in cryptocurrency, which they were to pay back, but never did. The case is a textbook, but it is only one of thousands of cases occurring at the same time in the world.
How Cybercriminals Use AI to Make Scams More Convincing
The most perilous aspect of the present-day wave of romance fraud is the factor of artificial intelligence. Konstantin Levinzon, who is the co-founder of Planet VPN, describes how offenders normally use emotional appeals and deceptive notions of love or relationship and then create emergencies or investment opportunities. However, currently generative AI tools are amplifying these strategies.
According to Levinzon, cybercriminals are using generative AI tools to commit their frauds more persistently. The users should be especially careful with the advent of AI and its ability to produce fake images and videos with a single click.
It is that the old tips of finding clumsy grammar or indistinct profile photos are no longer applicable. Artificial intelligence-created profile pictures seem no different at all. AI chatbots are able to maintain conversations that are emotionally engaging 24 hours a day without being tired. Deepfakes in video calls can make a face and voice of a real person look and sound so real as it might sound. There has never been a time when the impediment to operating a convincing romance scam was less than it is today.
Who Falls for Romance Scams — and Where They Happen
It is a consistent myth that only foolish or illiterate individuals become victims of Internet scams. The statistics give another story. A report released by the British bank TSB in the recent past found out that individuals between the ages of 65 and 74 years recorded the highest number of cases of romance fraud as compared to other age groups with 23 percent of the cases being between this age group and 58 percent of the total cases being individuals above this age bracket. These are usually intelligent and wise people who just happen to be lonely or in a vulnerable stage of their lives.
The platforms, on which these scams take their origin, are important as well. Among the 58 percent of romance fraud cases, social media sites were used, as well as dating sites in 42 percent of cases. Facebook alone had been linked to one-third of all scams, the largest amount in any platform. It is that romance frauds are not only limited to dating applications but flourish in any place where people can create a connection over the internet.
How to Protect Yourself Against Romance Scams
According to Levinzon, the same fundamentals can be used in relation to protection against scammers regardless of the platform or demographics. The first and most potent defense is the consciousness.
Levinzon advises that one should be suspicious of anyone they have never met in person because this is the only sure way to conduct oneself in the ever-fraught digital world. In the event that someone you have met on a dating site seems suspicious, then do a reverse image search on whether the pictures are stolen by other sites. And in case the conversation turns to money, or some one demands any personal details, quit the conversation.
In addition to being alert during conversations, there are some feasible measures everyone ought to observe in terms of cybersecurity. An extra layer of protection is introduced by the use of VPN network. Other scammers are able to determine the location of the users after which they send them personalized scams depending on their country. When VPN is switched on, the IP address and location of the person are hidden, and all data is encrypted such that no one can monitor your browsing activity even your internet service provider.
Another recommendation given by Levinson is to use a strong and unique password in all social media accounts and dating websites and multifactor authentication wherever possible. Social media should be set to maximum privacy, so that only a few people can get to see the posts, photos and personal information. All the public data are possible weapons of a fraudster who creates a fake rapport.
Love Should Not Come at This Cost
Romance frauds take advantage of the most human desire; the need to have someone to be connected with, companionship and love. The desire to have those things is not shameful, and neither should the fact that it was being targeted. The disgrace is fully on the perpetrators who take advantage of the weakness to get money.
The most intelligent thing anyone can do approaching Valentine’s Day is to slow down. Authenticate identities and then advance online relationships. When sending money to a person, you should not send it to a person with whom you have not met physically. Have all the digital tools available to you reverse image searches, VPNs, multi-factor authentication, restrictive privacy settings, etc. – make yourself a harder-to-target.
The fraudsters are improving. You need to get better too.