Romance fraudsters increasingly trying to make victims fall prey to bogus investments
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Romance scams are trying more to lure victims into bogus investments says a new report from the Federal Trade Commission.
People are led to believe their new online companion is a successful investor who, before long, casually offers investment advice, notes the report.
“When people follow this investment “advice,” they wind up losing all the money they “invest,” the FTC cautions.
The agency put out the warning less than a week before Valentine’s Day noting victims of romance scams have reported losing $1.3 billion in the last five years—-more than any other FTC fraud category.
The loss for 2021 totaled a record $547 million, an 80 percent increase over 2020.
The lures often started in social media with more than a third of the victims saying their fraudsters approached them initially on Facebook or Instagram.
Frequently in romance scams, the fraudster asks the woman or man being “wooed” for help in getting an inheritance or in moving funds for an important business deal.
This type of approach sets up the victims as “money mules,” says the report:
“They may think they’re just helping, but they’re really laundering stolen funds. These stories are also used to trick people into sending their own money.”
In addition to an increase in bogus investment lures, romance fraudsters were more active in 2021 in making…
