FTC: $1.3 billion lost by 70,000 Americans to romance scams last year

[vtqhtr413]

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https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ftc-13-billion-lost-by-70-000-americans-to-romance-scams-last-year/

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Americans once again reported record losses of $1.3 billion to romance scams in 2022, with median losses of $4,400. According to previous FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network (Sentinel) sources, Americans have also reported losing $493 million in 2019, $730 million in 2020, and $1.3 billion throughout 2021. "Last year's romance scam numbers looked a lot like 2021 all over again, and it's not a pretty picture. In 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam, and reported losses hit a staggering $1.3 billion," the FTC said. Scam loss statistics are based on Americans' romance scam reports to FTC's Sentinel and now also include reports filed with the Internet Crimes Complaint Center (IC3) after 2019. Unfortunately, these numbers reflect just a tiny fraction of the harm inflicted by romance scammers seeing that the vast majority of frauds are never reported.

FTC: $1.3 billion lost by 70,000 Americans to romance scams last year

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says Americans once again reported record losses of $1.3 billion to romance scams in 2022, with median losses of $4,400.

www.bleepingcomputer.com

 

[show-Zi]

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Cases of faking one's occupation or identity have long been a common tactic, but since social networking sites have become the stage for scams, there are more and more cases of people contacting people claiming to be famous people themselves.

 

[Zero Knowledge]

This is so sad. You can't even use online dating to try and find love. It's just desperate lonely people looking for company and love and that special someone and what do they get? Scammed ! Sometimes this world is F##KED . But people are still way to trusting on the internet, it's just a human trait, I guess.

Thing is everyone gets scammed sometime somewhere in your lifetime, but to send thousands to 10's of thousands is just stupid and naive when it comes to romance/business/whatever investment ponzi scheme.