Romance scams soar as more than £3.8m stolen in last three months
It’s as nearly half of people in the South East received messages they suspected, or have been confirmed to be fraud.
Santander UK is warning people about the ‘troubling rise’ romance scams, after more than £3.8 million was reported as stolen from customers in the last six months. That's an increase of 27% on the previous six-month period.
It’s a crime affecting people of all ages, with people aged 18 to 93 losing an average of £4,500 each.
However, around two in three people from the South East believe they will never fall victim to the scam, despite nearly half of people surveyed in the region saying they received messages suspected or confirmed to be fraud.
'You can take control'
Peter Staffell works at Santander fraud team using psychology to understand and prevent scams, he said: “Scammers are experts at presenting themselves as someone you can trust, someone who ‘gets’ you.
"They play the long game, building a relationship before executing on their scam and, as our research shows, it’s a natural instinct for many of us to willingly lend a financial hand to someone who we have formed an emotional bond with.
“Then they’ve gone. The scam is complete, and the impact extends far beyond the financial losses, leaving emotional scars and often people feeling more isolated than before.
"You can take control though, a few simple checks when you first start to speak to someone, and before your emotions take hold, can reveal a lot about the person you’re speaking to and save heartache further down the line.”
Santander UK have teamed up with Paul Gorton from BBC One’s 'The Traitors' to expose romance fraud.
Paul Gorton said: “In my experience, it's surprisingly easy to build deep trust, especially when someone is charming and says all the right things. As we start to feel a connection, whether it's real or not, we can end up overlooking red flags and ignore any warnings from others around us.
Statistics across the South East
“Stay vigilant to spot a traitor, it’d be too easy if they simply messaged you out of the blue asking for your money. Approach any new relationship with cautious optimism, complete checks and having your wits about you at the start.”
Statistics show that 61% of people in the South East admit to feeling lonely at some point, whilst 34% believe they can form a deep emotional connection with someone by speaking online. Santander say ‘this creates an opportunity for scammers’.
Facebook and Instagram have become hunting grounds for the “romantic” scammers, with over half (58%) of the suspicious messages received on these platforms.
Once an emotional connection has been formed the scammers can execute their plan, with nearly a third (25%) of people saying they would offer financial support to a romantic partner they’ve known for less than six months.
This number rises sharply to more than half (58%) where the relationship has been going on for longer than six months.
How to protect yourself:
Santander say, ‘try to remove emotion from your decision making. Be really careful if you're lending or giving someone money. No matter how urgent their reason might seem, it’s important you think it through. We'd always suggest talking it through first with a trusted friend or your family.
‘You can check if the person you’re talking to is really who they say they are. Pictures can be edited, and fake profiles can easily be made. Performing a reverse image search on a web search engine can show whether the photos have been taken from another website or social media platform.
‘It’s a red flag if the person you’ve been talking to online won’t video call or meet you in person. Fraudsters will make excuses about why this can’t happen or change plans to do so at the last minute.
‘Never send money or give card details, online account details, or copies of important personal documents to anyone you’ve only met online.’