How Cybersecurity is Addressing the Rising Threat of Online Romance Scams

Searching for friendships and relationships online has continued to grow in popularity, with an all-time high of 381 million people using dating apps in 2024. The convenience of dating apps, social media messaging, gaming platform chat, and other digital tools makes it easy to form connections with people both locally and globally. While these platforms provide a user-friendly forum for socializing, they also pose a risk as scammers can hide in plain sight and exploit users’ good intentions.

Romance and Friendship Scams in Cyberspace

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), more than 65,000 victims lost a staggering $1.18 billion to romance scams in 2023. These scams commonly start through matching on dating apps or unexpected private direct messages (DMs) on social media. Once contact is established, scammers can craft intricate lies, using stolen photos or data and believable details to make their fake profiles incredibly convincing. Many fraudsters pose as celebrities, military personnel, or successful businesspersons to reel in their targets.

The psychology behind the success of a relationship scam lies in a victim’s emotional vulnerability. Scammers create a sense of urgency, trust, and emotional dependency, often by showering victims with excessive affection and attention early on. This manipulation—known as “love bombing”—lowers defenses, making victims feel more trusting and likely to comply with requests.

Scammers then exploit victims’ affection for financial gain. Payment methods like cryptocurrency and bank wires are particularly popular, accounting for over 60% of reported losses in these scams. Additionally, gift cards are frequently requested, as they’re harder to trace and easier to liquidate, as well as asking for help with emergency financial situations.

"Unlike traditional scams, [these scammers] rarely ask for money outright; instead, they manipulate victims into offering financial help through fabricated medical emergencies, legal crises, or investment opportunities."—Jonathan Frost, Director, Global Advisory at BioCatch

The Growing Role of Deepfakes and AI

The emergence of new technologies has made relationship scams more sophisticated and harder to detect. Scammers can now use AI and deepfake technology to create realistic images, videos, text messages, email communications, and voice recordings, making their fake identities appear more authentic. Victims may believe they are speaking to a real person, only to discover later that the entire interaction was digitally created.

The accessibility of these technologies has made it easy for even amateur scammers to create successful high-level deceptions. This scalability also means that fraudsters can target multiple victims simultaneously, increasing the reach and impact of their schemes.

Identifying and Avoiding Romance Scams

To combat relationship scams, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently launched the “Dating or Defrauding?” campaign. The campaign focuses on educating the public about recognizing red flags and taking proactive measures to avoid falling victim to online romance scams. The FBI also released a warning to highlight the rising prevalence and dangers of these scams.

Often with cybersecurity concerns, human factors play a critical role, where the weak point is the untrained eye of an unsuspecting victim. Here are a few ways users can spot relationship scammers and protect themselves.

• Verify before you trust. Never rush into sharing personal information or giving away money—especially cryptocurrency—online, even with someone who seems trustworthy. If a  stranger asks you for money, consider it a scam and stop communicating with them. If you think it is someone you know, like a relative or co-worker, call that person on the phone to verify it is them. Often, personal accounts can be hacked, and scammers will pose as that person, sending DMs to all their contacts for financial help.
• Be cautious of over-affection. Scammers often use intense displays of affection to build quick trust. Proceed with caution if someone’s attention feels overwhelming or too good to be true.
• Look for inconsistencies. Fake profiles often have inconsistencies in their stories or images. Reverse image searches can help identify stolen photos.
• Report fake accounts. Most social media and dating platforms provide ways to report accounts, or to share the scammer’s information within a group or forum to warn others, or even reported to law enforcement.
• Secure your accounts. Use strong passwords that you update regularly and avoid sharing sensitive information through online platforms. Learning and exercising personal cybersecurity tactics and using common sense can be your first line of defense to avoiding relationship scams.

How the Cyber Industry is Fighting Online Romance Scams

The cybersecurity industry utilizes several tactics to detect and prevent the rising threat of online relationship scams. AI and machine-learning models can be used to monitor platforms for suspicious behaviors such as repeated messaging patterns, rapid relationship escalation, and inconsistencies in user profiles. Image-recognition tools can help identify AI-generated, stolen, or reused photos, while natural language processing (NLP) systems are trained to pick up on common scammer dialogue or psychological manipulation tactics. These tools can flag potential spam accounts for human moderators to investigate, or even shut them down automatically, depending on the platform’s protocols.

The popular dating app Bumble recently announced their new AI-powered tool called the Deception Detector™, which was developed to better address fake, spam, or scam profiles. During testing, this software supported blocking 95% of these types of accounts automatically with improved accuracy. Another dating app, Hinge, states they “use a combination of machine-learning-driven technology and content moderators to maintain the safety and integrity of the Hinge experience.” Facebook has been using AI, machine learning, and hand-coded tools for several years to help remove fake accounts. In 2019, they reported more than 6 billion fake accounts were removed, and that number continues to grow.

In addition to technical solutions, the fields of cyberpsychology and cyber product management are playing an increasingly important role in understanding how scammers manipulate emotions and exploit systems. Certain branches of cyberpsychology as well as product management involve experts who collaborate with cybersecurity teams to identify and map the tactics commonly used by scammers—like “love bombing,” mirroring, and urgent crisis scenarios—and help in the product design of systems that can detect these behavioral red flags. This interdisciplinary approach demonstrates the industry’s work toward building increasingly resilient and trustworthy online platforms, where people can connect without falling prey to digital deception.

Cybersecurity Education at Capitol Tech

The growing threat of online relationship scams underscores the urgent need for education and skills development in cybersecurity.

Capitol Technology University is proudly designated as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense by the NSA and DHS. Our Cybersecurity programs prepare you for real-world cyberattacks and help you develop innovative defense strategies in our evolving, cyber-focused world.

To learn more, contact our Admissions team or request more information.