With the year’s biggest day for romance looming and Americans’ use of dating sites and apps showing no signs of declining, people have to be aware that criminals might feign affection to scam would-be lovers, said an FBI agent and a woman who dodged such a fraudster.
The rise of dating websites and dating apps is well-documented. In February 2020, before the covid-19 pandemic drove people indoors and more online, Pew Research released a study suggesting that 30% of U.S. adults had used such services to look for love, and that percentage rose for 18- to 29-year-olds, hitting 48%.
As expected, the pandemic had its effect on online dating. In March 2020, Tinder recorded 3 billion swipes in one day, an all-time record, Fortune magazine reported. From March to May of that year, OkCupid reported a 700% increase in dates.
The surge in activity came as the number of online cons and romance scams was already on the rise, with the number of reported victims nationally doubling from 2015-20, said James Dawson, special agent in charge at the FBI’s Little Rock field office. In 2020, nearly 24,000 people reported falling victim to these scams, he said.
In Arkansas, 149 people reported falling victim to confidence or romance fraud in 2020, with losses of more than $1.8 million, according to statistics from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Although some scammers take more money than others, the losses can be staggering. In that same time period, the amount of money reported lost…
