How to spot Valentine’s Day scams - stay safe on this most special day with our security tips

• Cybersecurity firms have spotted a rise in Valentine’s scams in 2025 versus last year, even though they began later in the year
• 62% of Britons admit they can’t spot a fake AI dating profile
• 88% of employees use personal cloud storage on work networks; a nightmare for employers as 83% of observed Valentine’s phishing scams contained malicious attachments

Valentine’s Day is an emotional time, and, as a human being, you might sometimes feel drawn into making an impulsive, urgent decision.

In this day and age, human behavior raises plenty of cybersecurity and identity theft protection concerns, thanks to social engineering being a well-worn tool in threat actors’ arsenals bolstered by nascent technology that the average person just isn’t that literate on, like AI.

Straight up romance scams, for instance, which entail victims being manipulated into sending money to a threat actor, have become harder to spot in the wake of AI, or you could be sent an irresistible email offer for a Valentine’s gift, or an e-card purportedly from an admirer you may or may not know, that turns out to be a phishing attack.

Spotting and preventing romance scams

It’s no wonder that malware removal software provider Norton’s 2025 Cyber Safety Insights Report saw the company report over half (54%) of people online dating in the UK today have reported suspicion at profiles they’ve seen online, while nearly two-thirds (62%) admitted they wouldn’t be able to spot if they were being manipulated by AI content in an online dating environment.

Hope comes from Marko Maras, founder and CEO at identity intelligence firm Trustfull, who told us that “using open-source intelligence (OSINT) to analyse a user's digital footprint and verify their contact details is an incredibly effective way to spot fake or suspicious accounts.”

“For example, existing technology can instantly check whether a user's email or phone number matches the name they provided at sign-up, flag suspicious location mismatches, and even detect AI-generated images or celebrity photos being used as profile pictures.”

Phishing and Valentine’s brand impersonation

When it comes to gifting, we’re more likely to be exploited in the heat of the moment by a phishing scam, as we look past suspiciously low prices, and rush to click on a link in an email as we take the supposed provenance of a deal at face value. Security firm KnowBe4’s threat research team found that, in 2025, malicious links have been present in 82.6% of all observed phishing attacks, and that Valentine’s phishing scams are up 34.8% against 2024.

Another common phishing scam scourge we’ve seen reported this Valentine’s Day has been malicious attachments. Cybersecurity firm Netskope’s 2025 Cloud and Threat Report suggests this should worry SMBs, ‘thanks’ to 88% of employees using personal cloud apps on work networks.

“This Valentine’s Day, cybersecurity teams must remind employees that they are the first line of cyber defence and vigilance is key,” said Paolo Passeri, the company’s Cyber Intelligence Principal.

Protecting yourself from Valentine’s scams

On romance scams, Norton has good advice for knowing when to back away from a suspicious connection online. A reluctance to progress to video calls could, it says, indicate foul play. It also advises against clicking links sent from someone you don’t know well.

This could all seem a bit ‘yeah, so what?’, but it does also make the point that, with the rise of AI models, and their developers’ scraping of the internet for training data, it’s wise to be prudent about what you post online so that it cannot be used against you.

ThinkCyber had a lot of the same ideas, but it also raised the tried and true ‘if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is’. That’s valid for romance scams, but also when looking at apparent deals for gifts

Netskope’s Passeri elaborated on this, saying “whether it’s an unexpected love interest, a surprise gift email, or an irresistible discount, taking a moment to verify before clicking could mean the difference between staying secure and falling victim to an attack.”

Taking that moment to breathe and interrogate what you’re seeing before acting is excellent advice; on Valentine’s Day, and every other day too - why not? St Valentine ended up with his head cut off, so using yours a little more could go a long way.

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