When romance is a scam

Con artists now find victims on any social media platform — Instagram, Facebook, games like Words With Friends.

But “they quickly want to remove you from the platform,” said Amy Nofziger, director of the AARP Fraud Watch Network. The romancers ask to switch to text, phone or messaging apps that offer more intimacy and less security monitoring. The exchange of personal contact information also makes both parties appear trusting.

The tragic personal story, the quick professions of love combined with distance that prevents the parties’ ever meeting all fit the pattern, said Monica Vaca, an associate director in the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission.

Weeks or months may pass before the swindlers — generally not individuals, but criminal rings working in shifts (hence their ability to be wooing online all day) — make the key move.

They ask for money. Reports collected by the FTC from consumers and local law enforcement show how sharply online romance fraud is increasing. In 2015, the agency received 8,500 such complaints. Last year, the number topped 25,000 — though Vaca cautioned that “this crime is dramatically underreported.”

But what really drew regulators’ attention, given that other fraud categories generated more complaints, was the money involved. “It’s the No. 1 fraud category if you look at the total dollars people reported losing,” Vaca said.

In 2015, people reported losing $33 million to romance frauds; last year, they lost $201 million — more than victims lost to fake lotteries and sweepstakes, impostor frauds or tech support phishing. Older adults have been particularly hard hit.