As Valentine’s Day approaches, authorities have issued warnings to raise awareness of new romance techniques scammers are using this year. FBI offices in Philadelphia, Washington, Houston, and other states reminded the public to stay alert.
The FBI said social engineering romance con experts use the season to establish long-term relationships that end tragically for victims, often causing them to lose their entire savings. Crypto, AI, and fake AI identities are 3 top trends that the FBI is looking closely at.
Simultaneously, the Better Business Bureau (BBB), an American nonprofit founded in 1912 that works to support consumers and businesses, warned that money launderers and thieves are also using new romance scam techniques.
In this report, we look at the new technologies and techniques that are taking romance scams to the next level.
Romance scam stats are the tip of a massive iceberg
A report from Comparitech researchers released on February 12 found that an estimated 58,734 people fell victim to romance scams in 2024, resulting in a loss of approximately $697.3 million. The figure represents a decrease from 2023.
However, despite the drop in this number, the financial gains that cybercriminals are taking home remain high.
Comparitech researchers said that romance scammers are focusing on higher-payout victims, combining romance scams with crypto fraud.
Because scammers combine romance scams with other types of cyberattacks, the official stats don’t show the real cost of this trend, which is estimated to cost victims more than $535 billion.
Additionally, shame and fear prevent a large number of romance scam victims from reporting these incidents. These factors add to the targeting of high-value victims. It implies that the known romance scam statistics are only the tip of the iceberg.
Your sweetheart could be an AI bot: Cybercriminals use AI-scripted chatbots to romance victims
To understand how cybercriminals have integrated AI into their romance scam operations, Moonlock spoke to Mithilesh Ramaswamy, Senior Security Engineer at Microsoft. Ramaswamy has also worked for financial institutions Capital One and TD Bank.
“One major shift is the use of AI-driven chatbots to engage in prolonged, emotionally manipulative conversations,” Ramaswamy said.
One major shift is the use of AI-driven chatbots to engage in prolonged, emotionally manipulative conversations.
Mithilesh Ramaswamy, Senior Security Engineer at Microsoft
Ramaswamy explained that traditional scams often rely on scripted exchanges, but these bots adapt their responses based on user input. They can mimic human-like emotions and can even recall details from past conversations. This makes these bots particularly effective at building trust over time.
Deploying scripted romance AI bots also allows cybercriminals to scale up their campaigns and cut down on human resources.
“Furthermore, AI can analyze social media profiles to identify potential targets based on their interests, vulnerabilities, and financial status,” Ramaswamy said.
Threat actors have also turned to crypto as their preferred financial channel to receive victim payments. “The decentralized and often unregulated nature of crypto makes these funds incredibly difficult to recover,” Ramaswamy said.
How can you protect yourself? Ramaswamy said users should be suspicious of individuals avoiding in-person meetings. Also, be wary of common excuses like military deployment, broken webcams, or car problems.
Online conversations that shift quickly from dating apps to encrypted platforms like WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal are also a red flag, as encrypted messaging allows threat actors to evade detection.
A telltale sign of a scam is a sense of urgency. “Scammers invent emergencies (medical crises, travel fees) to pressure victims into sending crypto, gift cards, or wire transfers,” Ramaswamy added.
Melissa O’Leary, Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Fortalice Solutions, also spoke to Moonlock about new romance scam tactics and the use of AI.
O’Leary said that the development of AI allows bad actors to further bolster their attacks through the use of highly believable deepfake images. These images are sometimes of an even higher quality than legitimate media posted on the impersonated victims’ social media.
“These tactics have evolved over the years and will continue to do so as artificial intelligence grows stronger,” O’Leary said.
AI romance bots can impersonate anyone, including celebrities
Speaking to Moonlock, Paul Tucker, SVP Chief Information Security Officer at BOK Financial, said that AI is being leveraged to make romance scams more difficult to spot.
“Catfishing has come a long way since the early days of MySpace when scammers relied on stolen photos and fake stories to deceive people,” Tucker said.
“Scammers now use advanced AI tools to create highly realistic profiles, complete with high-quality photos, detailed bios, and even deepfake videos,” Tucker added.
Scammers now use advanced AI tools to create highly realistic profiles, complete with high-quality photos, detailed bios, and even deepfake videos.
Paul Tucker, SVP Chief Information Security Officer at BOK Financial
Tucker confirmed that scammers are also using AI chatbots to simulate target-personalized conversations. “AI also helps in that it can scrape data from social media to compile a dossier on their target, focusing on abusing emotional vulnerabilities such as loneliness, a person’s recent divorce, or grief,” Tucker explained.
Thanks to these AI tools, romance scammers can impersonate anyone, including celebrities. To make the scam even more convincing, some bad actors even deploy AI-generated live video calls.
When romance scams transform into crypto fraud
While sophisticated AI tools allow bad actors to increase the scale and efficiency of their campaigns, crypto investment scams and fraud are usually how romance scams end.
After establishing long or short-term romantic relationships with victims, threat actors pivot and begin to talk money with their victims. This is where crypto comes in.
A common technique is to share fake crypto investment platforms with romance scam victims. This can lead victims to fake crypto exchanges that also leverage AI to make them appear legit.
Romance scam victims who fall for the trick and invest in these fake crypto projects will, for the first weeks, actually see an increase in profits. However, these profits are as fake as the crypto platform they are investing in.
Victims are “fattened,” incentivizing them to continue to invest. The problem comes when they attempt to make withdrawals. They are then asked to pay high withdrawal fees.
Ultimately, these victims never get their money back.
ATM crypto fraud is a popular tactic
Another tactic involves redirecting victims through crypto ATM scams.
Tucker from BOK Financial explained that romance victims are instructed to withdraw a large sum of money to transfer it to a “secure” account for protection.
“While keeping the victim on the phone, the scammer directs them to a crypto ATM and provides a QR code,” Tucker said. “Once scanned, the money is instantly transferred to the scammer’s crypto wallet, where it is quickly moved to multiple accounts (often overseas), making it nearly impossible to recover.”
Want to be my “Sugar Daddy” for a weekly allowance?
The BBB also recently warned that romance scammers have a new scam they called “Sugar Momma” or “Sugar Daddy.” In this scam, victims are contacted over dating apps or social media and offered payment in exchange for affection. If the victim agrees, threat actors send them a “weekly allowance” of up to thousands of dollars.
In this scam, victims are instructed to keep part of the payment and send back the rest in gift cards, do favors, or return the funds as crypto. The nature of this scam signals possible money laundering operations, using romance scams to clean dirty money. Victims have also been asked to give sensitive details in order to deposit money, only to then see that their accounts are restricted or blocked by the bank.
Final thoughts
AI advancements now allow cybercriminals to deploy AI romance scam bots that are highly efficient. AI is used throughout the entire chain of attack, from deepfakes to identity theft to financial bots misleading victims.
Keeping up to date with breaking cybersecurity news and being suspicious of digital strangers is a must today. This applies not only during Valentine’s Day but all year long.
