By Sabrina Lynch
- U.S. consumers have lost $1.3B to romance scams in the last five years
- 79% of online daters report they experience loneliness
Valentine’s day may be world’s love day but it has also become the ‘simp for you’ scammers who are ready to prey on victims looking for love. Dating websites and apps are rapidly evolving to meet growing consumer demand for new ways to make meaningful connections. Artificial intelligence has been at the forefront of reshaping the dating industry, but the tech has also opened the door to new threats which affect the population’s wellbeing. Over the past five years, people have reported losing a staggering $1.3 billion to romance scams and confidence fraud – with $652 million in losses in 2023 alone.
Why This Matters: The paranoia of finding true love is real because more and more prospective dates on the apps are not. In fact, 60% of current online daters believe they’ve had a conversation with someone on a dating app that was written by AI. People are turning to AI as their personal dating coach, helping consumers create personalized profiles, enhance photos and personalize messages for matches. But at the same time, this very tech is transforming the way scammers interact with their victims.
The most common scams online daters who have been victimized include: catfishing 55%, romance scams 34%, sugar daddy/sugar baby scams 32% and sextortion scams 31%. Deepfake technology is also being used to create realistic videos and audio recordings, making scams feel even more authentic and harder to detect. Even the notion of ‘love at first sight’ can’t be trusted with over half 55% of online daters reporting they come across suspicious profiles on a weekly basis. And even as most AI romance stories end up in scams, there are some success stories that eventually lead up to marriage. Some are sealing marriage contracts on the blockchain without having met ushering a new digital age in love.
What’s Next: This rise in romance baiting underscores the need for caution. Scammers are here for the long game, using AI to build trusting relationships over weeks, even months before introducing their financial schemes. As AI becomes more integrated in our daily lives, it’s become more important to recognize both its benefits and the ways it should be governed to stop mass manipulation.
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