ROMANCE scams hit a record high last year, with victims duped out of £36.5million. But fake Romeos raked in only a fraction of the overall total lost to bank payments fraud, which hit £1.
17billion. 3 Romance scams hit a record high last year, with victims duped out of £36.5million Credit: Getty Online love cheats woo lonely singletons before starting to ask for help buying things and pushing for cash transfers.
Figures from UK Finance show the scams, which typically take several months and see victims duped into making ten payments, rose by almost a third in 2023 compared to the year before. And they doubled from 2020. It is likely the overall figure is much higher than recorded, said the banking body, with victims often suffering emotional damage.
The Sun spoke to fraud experts from Natwest who deal with hundreds of calls each week from devastated victims of all ages and backgrounds. One call handler said: “Often people don’t believe that they’re being scammed and say, ‘it’s my money, I can do what I want’. “But it turns out they have never met the person.
“They will have been fed excuses like they ‘work on an oil rig and can’t take a call’.” Around 50 per cent of romance fraud starts on social media sites. Most read in Business KEEPING UP Motherwell goalkeeper Liam Kelly set to make stunning Rangers transfer return STAYING POWER Lennon reveals bid to block Gers target leaving Rapid Bucharest for Ibrox JET TRAGEDY Brit granddad who died of heart at.