On the eve of Valentine’s Day, researchers at Comparitech, Chainalysis and Bitfender are highlighting the staggering losses to romance baiting or pig butchering observed.
Comparitech estimated that almost 60,000 US romance seekers fell victim to these scams in 2024, resulting in heartbreaking losses of approximately $697 million ($11,616/victim!).
More concerning is an AARP survey that estimated that 4% of Americans have fallen victim to these scams, equating to over 13 million individuals, which is about 3.6% of those officially reported. Researchers estimate the cumulative financial damage from romance scams could exceed $535 billion.
Chloé Messdaghi, Founder founder of SustainCyber has this comment:
“These romance scams and pig butchering operations are getting more aggressive and harder to spot. Scammers are weaponizing AI to create fake profiles, deepfake videos, and run chatbot-driven conversations that feel real—they know how to tap into emotions fast.
“We can’t keep placing the burden solely on individuals to ‘watch for red flags’ when those flags are increasingly invisible. Platforms need to step up with stronger fraud detection and identity verification, and financial institutions should be doing more to catch suspicious transaction patterns before people lose everything. This is a collective problem that requires a collective response—tech, finance, and policy all need to work together to protect people from being manipulated and financially gutted.”
Since a major part of what I do is scam related, I’ll offer up this story that I did earlier this week. While it’s not the whole solution, it’s a start in terms of protection from these scams.
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This entry was posted on February 13, 2025 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Scam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Romance Scam Losses Could Exceed $535 Billion
On the eve of Valentine’s Day, researchers at Comparitech, Chainalysis and Bitfender are highlighting the staggering losses to romance baiting or pig butchering observed.
Comparitech estimated that almost 60,000 US romance seekers fell victim to these scams in 2024, resulting in heartbreaking losses of approximately $697 million ($11,616/victim!).
More concerning is an AARP survey that estimated that 4% of Americans have fallen victim to these scams, equating to over 13 million individuals, which is about 3.6% of those officially reported. Researchers estimate the cumulative financial damage from romance scams could exceed $535 billion.
Chloé Messdaghi, Founder founder of SustainCyber has this comment:
“These romance scams and pig butchering operations are getting more aggressive and harder to spot. Scammers are weaponizing AI to create fake profiles, deepfake videos, and run chatbot-driven conversations that feel real—they know how to tap into emotions fast.
“We can’t keep placing the burden solely on individuals to ‘watch for red flags’ when those flags are increasingly invisible. Platforms need to step up with stronger fraud detection and identity verification, and financial institutions should be doing more to catch suspicious transaction patterns before people lose everything. This is a collective problem that requires a collective response—tech, finance, and policy all need to work together to protect people from being manipulated and financially gutted.”
Since a major part of what I do is scam related, I’ll offer up this story that I did earlier this week. While it’s not the whole solution, it’s a start in terms of protection from these scams.
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This entry was posted on February 13, 2025 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Scam. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.