How AI Is Making Romance Scams Even More Dangerous
Most of us believe that we would never, ever fall for a scam. We think we know the "tells," like poorly formulated communication that sounds urgent. Unfortunately, social engineering —tactics that prey on human emotions and instincts to get us to act against our own interests—can work on anyone. Romance scams are a textbook example of emotional manipulation in which the perpetrator exploits a victim's feelings of loneliness, love, or desire for connection to build trust over the long term. Beyond the emotional toll, the financial consequences are significant: The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) reported $672 million in romance scam losses in 2024, and this number is almost certainly only a fraction of the real total. Scammers are increasingly employing AI tools in romance scams, making these campaigns even harder to detect and therefore even more dangerous for targets. Experian predicts that AI-powered romance scams will be among the top fraud threats...
