In 2016, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation received reports of more than US $220 million being lost by victims of relationship scams.[15] This was approximately seven times what was stolen through phishing scams and almost 100 times the reported losses from ransomware attacks.[15] According to FBI IC3 statistics, the crime has been at an alarming rise. Monetary loss in the United States rose from $211 million to $475 million from 2017 to 2019. The number of cases of reported romance scams rose from 15,372 to 19,473 in those two years.[16][17]
“The FTC estimated on average $2,500 was sent to romance scammers in 2020, more than ten times the median loss across all fraud types. Given the rampant use of social media and rise of online dating services, the opportunity for scammers to prey on individuals is only growing, explained Emma Fletcher, an analyst at the FTC. “To be able to make that connection and do it remotely is something that may not have been possible a decade ago, but it’s very much possible and socially quite common now for people to make love connections online and they’re taking advantage of that,” Fletcher said.”[18]
It really sucks that we’ve become a society full of extremely lonely people who are so desperate that they get conned just looking for some compassion.
This guy definitely found the right grift:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_scam#Scale
It really sucks that we’ve become a society full of extremely lonely people who are so desperate that they get conned just looking for some compassion.