Dating and social media sites ‘fail to protect’ users from cons

When Eleanor Harper found out that the man she thought was in love with her was in fact conning her for money, she felt violated. “I lost £21,000 to him, but I also lost my trust in other people,” said Ms Harper, 53. “I am recently widowed, the scammer knew I was vulnerable.”

She is one of a rapidly growing number of people who fall victim to romance scams, where a criminal pretends to be in a relationship with someone they have met online in order to extract money. Senior police officers and fraud experts have criticised dating agencies and social media firms for failing to protect their customers and are calling on them to improve their identity checks.

The explosion of this kind of scam will be the next area of focus in the first national police crackdown on fraud. However, officers said it would be effective only with cooperation from private companies.

Accounts with dating agencies and social media sites can be set up in minutes and users are not always asked to verify their identity when they apply. This allows scammers to set up accounts easily using a fake name, said Luke Ryder of Barclays.

Ashley Hart of TSB said many sites were slow to recognise the threat of romance scams and did little to prevent them. Even when fraudsters have been reported, sources said sites were slow to react and scam accounts were often not taken down, letting criminals continue to take money. A fraud expert at one high street bank said the lack of regulation meant that when accounts were eventually shut, fraudsters simply opened another using a different name and email address.

Graeme Biggar of the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC), a government body, said pursuit of fraudsters was often hampered by data not being made available to the police.

“We need to be smarter at identifying these criminals, but frankly some social media sites could be more helpful as well,” he added.

Reported romance scams jumped by 50pc from the first half of 2018 to the first half of 2019, figures from

Romance scams are on the rise, costing victims huge sums of money trade body UK Finance showed. In the past year, a quarter of people who used online dating services were contacted by someone who used a fake name or picture.

Those who fall victim often lose life-changing sums. Barclays said the average amount lost by its customers to romance scams was £11,500. Other banks have reported cases in which hundreds of thousands of pounds were taken. Commander Karen Baxter of the City of London Police said some dating agencies acted with due diligence but others did not. “We see a large number of cases coming from a few specific firms,” she added.

Ms Harper met the man who defrauded her via Match.com. They began to speak regularly, phoning each other two or three times a day.

“He would tell me he loved me and talk about our future together – all the things you want to hear,” she said.

After seven weeks, he started to ask her for money, claiming his bank account had been blocked. Ms Harper agreed, transferring in total £21,000. The relationship ended only when her bank, NatWest, became involved as it suspected that she was being scammed.

A Match.com spokesman said that its members’ safety was its highest priority and that it had a dedicated security team.

People looking for love online are being made easy prey for scammers, writes Marianna Hunt