Why Are Romance Fraud Losses Rising?
Romance fraud is becoming one of the fastest-growing forms of financial crime in the UK, with victims losing more than £102 million last year, according to City of London Police data.
The figures show 10,784 reports were filed through the national reporting system, a 29% increase from 2024. Losses now average nearly £280,000 a day, with victims losing £9,500 on average. In the most severe cases, individual losses reached £1 million.
Investigators say the crime is no longer limited to one-off deception. It is increasingly linked to organised fraud operations that combine emotional manipulation with repeated financial extraction over weeks or months.
How Do Romance Scams Typically Work?
Romance fraud often begins on social media platforms or dating sites, where criminals create fake identities and build contact with potential victims. The relationship may appear genuine, with offenders spending long periods gaining trust before introducing requests for money.
Those requests are often framed around emergencies, travel costs, or planned meetings. Investment offers have become a growing route, with victims directed toward fake trading platforms or cryptocurrency schemes.
The prolonged nature of the scam is what drives high losses. Unlike many fraud cases where a victim is targeted once, romance fraud often involves repeated payments after emotional dependency has been created.
Investor Takeaway
How Is AI Changing Romance Fraud?
Investigators report growing use of artificial intelligence in romance fraud, including AI-generated profile images, automated messages, translation tools, and manipulated video content.
These tools make scams easier to scale. A single operator can manage several victims at once, sustain conversations across languages, and create more convincing false identities.
Silvija Krupena, director of the Financial Intelligence Unit at RedCompass Lab, said AI is accelerating every stage of the process, from first contact to long-running conversations. She also pointed to the growing overlap between romance fraud and investment scams, where the relationship becomes the route into fake trading or crypto schemes.
Jonathan Frost, director of global advisory for EMEA at BioCatch, said the threat may expand further as fraud groups adapt. Attempts to dismantle scam operations in Southeast Asia may push criminals toward more automated models rather than reducing volumes.
Investor Takeaway
Why Are These Scams Hard to Detect?
Romance fraud is difficult for financial institutions to identify because victims often authorise the payments themselves. Traditional fraud systems usually look for unusual transactions, but the first warning signs may be behavioural rather than purely financial.
Those signs can include new payment recipients, rising transaction frequency, or sudden changes in account activity. By the time clear financial alerts appear, victims may already have sent large sums.
Cryptocurrency adds another layer of risk. Fraudsters increasingly direct victims toward crypto payments or fake investment platforms, where transactions are harder to reverse and funds can cross borders quickly.
Authorities also believe official figures understate the true scale of losses. Victims may avoid reporting cases because of embarrassment, emotional distress, or fear of judgment.
The latest data shows romance fraud moving from isolated deception toward coordinated operations that combine social engineering, digital payments, crypto rails, and AI tools. Without stronger detection methods and platform controls, losses are likely to keep rising.
