NEW YORK — New York is looking for love in all the wrong places on the surface, but a couple other states across the country have been hurt much more by finding “fake love.”
According to a service study online research Social Catfish, New York had 823 people fall victim to a romance scam in 2022, losing a total of $33.5 million. Believe it or not, it’s actually an improvement over 2021, when the state’s victims lost $57.6 million. So at least it seems that people are becoming more aware of these types of scams.
In both 2022 and 2021, New York ranked fourth in the country for falling for romance scams, which can occur on dating apps or social media profiles after the scammer steals a profile photo, pretending to be someone else.
Last year, the three states that lost the most to scams were Florida ($53.4 million), Texas ($60.3 million) and California, which lost far more money than any other state. The Golden State lost $158 million to the scams, according to the study, which is more than the next three states combined.
As for the other states in the tri-state area, New Jersey ranked 15th (up from 6th in 2021), with 361 victims who lost $14.2 million. Connecticut was right in the middle, with 159 people losing a total of $7.1 million, which ranked 26th in the nation. However, Connecticut had the eighth-highest median amount lost, at nearly $45,000, which beat New York and New Jersey by around $5,000 each.
For the second year in a row, Vermont saw the fewest romance scams at just 28 total. Victims in Green Mountain State lost just over $373,000 in total, found the study.
Overall, Americans lost a record $1.3 billion to romance scams last year, up from $547 million the year before, an increase of 138% year-over-year. It also marks the biggest single-year rise in the last five years, the study indicated.
It’s not too surprising to see California, Texas, Florida, and New York topping the list: each of them is highly populated, making it easy for them to rack up big losses. And California had the highest average loss per victim, averaging just over $72,200, according to the study.
But the largest increases in money lost year-over-year were actually in much smaller states, such as Arkansas (398% increase), New Mexico (268% increase), Maine (216% increase), New Hampshire (155% increase). increase) and West Virginia (135% increase).
The victim was tricked by a person she met online. Liz González with the information.
What is the most common method of stealing cash from unsuspecting victims who are just looking for love?
What is the most common method of stealing cash from unsuspecting victims who are just looking for love? That would be crypto, which accounted for more than a third of all money lost to these types of scams last year. Wire transfers were the second most popular, while gift cards ranked third.
A quarter of all romance scammers would use the line that they were “sick, injured or in jail” to get the target to send them money; it was used in just under a quarter of all scams, according to Social Catfish. Scammers also targeted those looking to learn more about money, as the “I can teach you how to invest” lie was used in 18 percent of scams.
In a survey of those who had been attacked, Social Catfish said three-quarters of the victims were college educated and 84% were lower or middle class. Nearly half of those surveyed earned less than $100,000 a year, according to the study.
In addition to the survey, Social Catfish analyzed data from the Fraud Report from the Complaint Center 2022 FBI Internet Crimes published in March 2023 and the annual fraud report of the Federal Trade Commission published in February 2023 for their conclusions.
The study also named three scams in particular to watch out for:
- Celebrity romance scam: Social Catfish said that if an online celebrity appears to be contacting you asking for money, it’s a scam. And even if it sounds crazy, it happens: they said that a victim sent money to a fake Nicholas Cage; another chose not to send the fraudulent Keanu Reeves $400,000 to help finance the movie “John Wick.”
- Cryptocurrency Romance Scam: those looking to scam people will say that they have become rich on cryptocurrency and try to convince the victim to invest with them by downloading an app. Sometimes the app will even show a return on investment, but in reality, it’s all a scam.
- Military Romance Scam: some scammers will swipe military photos and claim to be stationed abroad, which they use as the reason they can’t meet in person. But they will ask for money so they can fly to the United States to meet and be together. A reverse image search can help make sure who you’re talking to is really the person in the photo, the investigative service said.
So where are all these scammers?
The answer has its roots in one of the oldest scams on the internet: Nigerian prince scams. Social Catfish said most romance scammers are found in Nigerian office buildings, where the criminals use a mix of different strategies that can be seen in corporate America and elsewhere.
The office buildings are said to be running 24/7, and much of the money stolen by the scammer goes to whoever is in charge.
Be sure to send electronic payments to your intended destination as scammers prefer these apps.
2023-05-02 14:02:16
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