Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Romance scammers made off with a total of $139 million in cryptocurrency last year, five times more than the amount stolen in 2020, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Cryptocurrency payments made up the largest fraction of the $547 million lost to scammers in 2021, with victims losing $9,770 in crypto on average.
Romance scammers (whom we could probably also call catfishers) often create fake social profiles using pictures taken from the internet, and then trick victims into sending them money, the FTC explains. They may claim to need money for some sort of financial crisis, but even more interestingly, some scammers pretend to be âfinancial expertsâ who promise to invest their victimsâ money in cryptocurrency or the stock market.
Outside of crypto, gift cards were romance scammersâ most commonly requested form of payment â 28 percent of victims paid their âloverâ with one, amounting to a total of $36 million lost, the FTC said. Victims also paid a total of $121 million through bank transfers and other forms of payments, and paid $93 million through wire transfers.
As the FTC notes, there are some red flags to watch out for that may indicate youâre being scammed; when anyone youâve met online asks for payment in gift cards, crypto, or through wire transfer, itâs best to decline their request. And if youâre suspicious that someone may be catfishing you, just run their profile picture through a reverse image search to see if itâs been used elsewhere.
And remember that romance scams arenât the only way fraudsters fool people into sending cryptocurrency. Last year, the FBI warned the public about a scam where bad actors convinced victims to put their cash into cryptocurrency ATMs and then sent newly purchased coins to the scammer via a QR code. In that scenario, scammers used promises of wealth or love, or impersonated financial institutions to reel in their victims.