If you text an intimate photo of yourself to a lover for Valentine’s Day, that gift could end up costing you much more than a box of chocolates would have.
A growing number of dating app users have fallen victim to “sextortion” scams in which fraudsters ask for explicit pictures, the Federal Trade Commission is warning. Once they have the images, the fake lovers demand money in exchange for not sharing them with a victim’s social media contacts.
“In terms of sextortion, that action is not new, but we’ve seen a significant increase — an eightfold jump in reports — on that issue since 2019,” FTC spokesman Jay Mayfield told The Washington Times. “We also noted that people aged 18-29 were more than six times as likely to report sextortion than people 30 and over.”
Romance scams cost roughly 70,000 Americans an estimated $1.3 billion in 2022, according to data the agency released Thursday. That’s equal to 2021 and more than double the total amount netted in pre-pandemic Cupid scams.
FTC records show romance fraud brought in $493 million from 39,875 victims in 2019, $730 million from 54,210 people in 2020 and $1.3 billion from 79,000 people in 2021.
The numbers confirm that singles of all ages can fall for scams as online dating grows in popularity, said Amber Brooks, editor of Florida-based DatingNews.com.
“Unfortunately, sextortion is part of the casual dating landscape, and it’s actually impacting male users more and more,” Ms. Brooks said in an email. “Some young men do not have a good understanding of the risks of sexting and how those private images can be used against them.”
Romance scams have evolved from the days when women would get an email from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince, she added. She noted that fraudsters now spend weeks or months talking with people on dating apps before asking for any money or favors.
As the popularity of online dating grows, the number of scammers on dating websites has multiplied.
The share of newly married couples who report meeting online has grown over the last five years, according to annual surveys from The Knot, a wedding planning website. New spouses are now more likely to say they met online than through friends or in school, previously the most common ways to meet a long-term partner.
The popular social media apps eHarmony, Tinder, Hinge, Bumble and Luxy have all beefed up their video and voice messaging features over the past three years to help online daters vet each other.
Despite these efforts, a recent survey from the cybersecurity firm Aura found 50% of Americans who used a dating app in the past five years reported experiencing catfishing. That share more than doubled from 24% over five years ago.
The average amount of money lost per romance scam victim was $2,000, the Boston-based company reported.
“People still believe in love and those who are lonely and looking for love are often easy targets,” said Zulfikar Ramzan, Aura’s chief scientist. “Not to mention, cybercriminals have gotten better and better at what they do and they’re constantly adapting.”
The best way to guard against sextortion and other romance scams is to withhold any personal information and watch for red flags before meeting in person, he added.
Analyzing 8,070 romance scam reports from the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network, the federal agency on Thursday broke down the most common lies Americans heard last year.
Topping the list was scammers telling 24% of daters they needed money because a friend or relative was sick, hurt or in jail. The next most common lies involved scammers sharing “great investment advice” with victims, claiming to be in the military, and asking for help to make some important delivery.
And 3% of scam reports involved hearing the lie, “You can trust me with your private pictures.”
“To avoid becoming a victim, we always advise singles to hop on a video call or go ahead and meet at a coffee shop to get that face time that confirms the match is real and not a fake profile,” said dating expert Ms. Brooks, who met her husband on Hinge and OkCupid. “If a person says their webcam isn’t working or makes excuses to not talk in person, that’s a red flag that the person doesn’t look like their profile picture and doesn’t want you to know.”
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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