Beyond romance fraud: The rising threat of social media scams

Sometimes it feels like we are in the middle of a scam epidemic. From bogus investment schemes to phishing attacks, online fraud is becoming more frequent, more sophisticated, and more emotionally exploitative.

In the midst of it all, one type of fraud is grabbing more headlines than the rest: romance scams. Victims of these schemes are not only left financially devastated, but emotionally manipulated, tricked into believing they were in a real, meaningful relationship that turned out to be part of the elaborate scam.

The latest data from the City of London Police reveals that in 2024 alone, over £106 million was lost to romance scams, with victims losing an average of £11,222 each. And the problem is showing no signs of slowing down, with Barclays reporting a 20% increase year-on-year.

However, romance fraud is just the tip of the iceberg. Fraudsters are constantly changing their tactics, using new tools and strategies to deceive thousands of social media users into handing over substantial sums of money.

Evolving techniques

Romance scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, now turning to AI-generated deepfakes to make their stories more believable. They create hyper-realistic videos and audio, impersonating celebrities or trusted individuals to manipulate victims, by using easily accessible AI tools.

That’s what happened earlier this year in France, when a woman was scammed out of €830,000 by individuals who impersonated Brad Pitt using AI-generated images and videos.

In cases like these, scammers are particularly effective because they adopt a “slow-burn” approach, carefully nurturing online relationships over weeks or even months before making their move.

When the time is right, the ask for money is usually linked to a fake medical emergency, a golden investment opportunity, or a sudden family crisis.

While romance scams have grabbed the most headlines when it comes to social media scams, they’re just one example of a much bigger problem.

The tip of the iceberg

Stolen identities, deepfakes and other AI-generated techniques are driving fraud across social media. They are not used only for romance scams but also phishing campaigns, impersonation attacks, and social engineering.

Specifically, there has been a significant increase in scams using synthetic identities, where fraudsters create entirely fake personas using a mix of real, stolen, and fabricated personal details. These techniques are not just common to perpetrate romance scams, but are often used to secure loans with no intention to repay them as well as in money laundering schemes.

The use of deepfakes or synthetic identities is also on the rise in social engineering scams, where fraudsters impersonate trusted organizations or individuals to trick victims into revealing personal details, financial information or even transferring money. These tactics allow scammers to build up credibility with their victims, leading them to believe they are interacting with, and even giving money to, a credible entity.

Deepfake videos of celebrities are increasingly used to promote investment scams, tricking victims into handing over money for fake investments, promising high returns that never materialize. According to Hargreaves Lansdown, losses from investment scams rose by more than a third in 2024, reaching £144.4 million.

In one recent case, an organized network based in Georgia defrauded thousands of savers across the UK, Europe, and Canada out of $35 million (£27 million). The scammers used deepfake videos and fake news reports featuring money expert Martin Lewis to promote bogus cryptocurrency and investment schemes.

Tackling online fraud

Something that most scams have in common is their origin point. Three quarters of scams (75%) start online, whether that be on dating sites, social media or digital platforms.

Thanks to pre-built fraud kits that can be bought ‘off the shelf’ on the dark web, the entry barrier to fraud no longer exists, and being an expert has become irrelevant.

With AI tools to create deepfakes available online, and synthetic identities up for sale, anyone with an internet connection and bad intentions can now manufacture trust at scale to commit fraud, making digital environments an increasingly dangerous place.

To stem the tide of fraud, digital platforms and social media sites need to take proactive steps to prevent bad actors from operating on their sites.

Integrating technology that detects fraud before a conversation even begins would be a critical step in that direction. AI-powered digital footprint analysis and OSINT tools offer powerful ways to verify whether there’s a real person behind an account, not just whether the account looks real.

These technologies can instantly check whether a user's email or phone number matches the name they provided at sign-up and flag suspicious location mismatches. They can even detect AI-generated images or celebrity photos being used as profile pictures, as well as flag the use of disposable phone numbers or newly created email addresses.

These are simple yet highly effective measures that can make a huge difference in preventing not only romance scams but also investment scams, social engineering, phishing, and more.

Big Tech needs to step up its game

So why are we seeing a rise in scams across the board, when there is technology that could prevent them? In short, these tools are not being used to their full potential.

In recent years, some social media sites have introduced additional voluntary safeguards to verify users' identities and protect against scams, but there’s still more to be done.

If Big Tech can personalise ads with near-perfect accuracy, it should also be able to detect and disrupt romance scams and other forms of fraud. The reality is this simply hasn’t been made a priority.

Until it is, criminal exploitation scams will continue to massively proliferate on social media and other digital platforms.

The tools and resources to prevent scams are there. What we need now is the will to use them.

We've featured the best identity theft protection.

This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro