According to a 2024 Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, the number of romance fraud cases is lower than those involving businesses or the government, but the financial losses involved are much higher, totaling $1.14 billion.
This number alone might not be enough to get a full picture but consider the following: 2021’s losses for this type of scam totaled $547 million, meaning there was a 108% increase in losses in just two years. It’s not by chance that the increase in romance scam losses coincided with the widespread availability of machine learning tools and technologies.
Fraudsters quickly weaponized them to their advantage, orchestrating large-scale attacks with minimum effort. With AI, it couldn’t be easier to automate target identification, craft compelling fake profiles, and quickly build trust over time.
This article delves into how scammers are weaponizing AI and what to look out for to avoid falling victim to these sophisticated schemes.
Historically, online dating scams involve simple deceiving methods to lure in their victims. One example is stealing other people’s photos from social media, creating fake profiles, and using generic messages to interact with the target (eg. “I feel like we have such a strong connection already”).
While this may have worked to trick some people, it was generally easy to identify red flags like inconsistent or evasive messages.
With the emergence of AI, these scams advanced into well-polished operations, making them far more challenging to spot. Machine learning in scams paves the way for:
However, not all is lost, and there are ways to verify profiles and uncover scams. One example is Social Catfish, a service that specializes in background checks. With numerous investigative tools, you can turn into Sherlock Holmes, escaping advanced scams and outsmarting the perpetrator.
With the rise of AI, generating fake profiles that are almost indistinguishable from real ones has become much more possible. This is primarily due to machine learning models like GANs and NLP.
The first step for creating a genuine fake profile is gathering large amounts of data from social media platforms, public records, and data breaches. With machine learning, scammers can quickly scrape and process this information for:
By leveraging the wide availability of AI image generators, scammers can make fake profiles appear as authentic as anyone else’s. The computer-generated photos look like real people and don’t require impostors to steal and use someone else’s image, reducing the chance of being detected.
Deepfake technology lets scammers create seemingly authentic videos in which fabricated profiles interact and talk, adding to their authenticity. It can also be used to impersonate celebrities, CEOs, and family members to easily manipulate people.
NLP models analyze real user interactions in platforms like social media and forums, such as posting habits, commenting tendencies, engagement style, and conversational tone. With AI, con artists can replicate these behaviors across fake profiles, making them seem authentic and relatable.
The final step for creating fake profiles is expanding the operation using pre-configured algorithms that automatically generate and handle thousands of fake profiles without manual input.
For example, in early 2025, a woman was deceived by a scammer posing as Brad Pitt. Over a period of 18 months, the victim was lured in with declarations of love, poems, and AI-generated hospital selfies of the actor. Throughout this period, the scammer stole approximately $850,000 of the victim’s money.
AI-generated profiles are far more believable than human-generated ones since they lack the typical red flags of earlier scams. These include inconsistent conversational tone, blurry profile photos, and sudden and unusual requests. In addition, fake profiles are crafted to align and resonate with the victim, making them scarily challenging to spot.
If you are worried about this, we recommend using Social Catfish. The software has an AI Chat Checker, which flags AI-generated content in emails and text messages.
Due to machine learning, spotting romance scams isn’t so straightforward anymore, and we’re left with only a handful of ways to do it.
Question unsolicited messages: Sudden message requests from strangers are a usual method for scammers to approach their victim first.
Be skeptical: Overly polished conversations with swift declarations of love and affection are a typical red flag.
Ask follow-up questions: Seek additional information about discussed topics to find inconsistencies in the dialogue.
It’s indisputable that machine learning has revolutionized our way of life across all spheres of society. Unfortunately, for every silver lining there’s a dark cloud, and scammers are taking advantage of AI to become more sophisticated in their criminal activities.
Machine learning is helping them with romance scam efforts by creating ultra-realistic fake profiles that can have meaningful one-to-one conversations and manipulate people with data-driven precision. From behavior analysis to deepfake technology and image generators, scammers can build strong bonds with victims, exploit their emotional vulnerabilities, and steal from them much more quickly and easily.
While detecting romance scam attempts is difficult, it’s not impossible. Daters should apply common sense, be critical, and use services like Social Catfish to protect themselves. With exceptional tools like reverse image search or criminal history lookup, exposing fraudulent actors is as easy as flipping a switch.
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