Romance fraud is when a person makes a fake online persona and uses it to form a romantic relationship with you. The goal is usually to make you send them money.

They might try to:

• manipulate your emotions
• build a relationship with you over time
• ask for money (often for medical care or to visit you from abroad)
• ask for vouchers

How romance fraud works

Most romance scams follow a similar pattern:

• someone approaches you on a dating app or social media
• a profile they match with seems perfect (because it’s designed that way)
• the scammer builds a relationship with the person
• the scammer creates a “crisis” where they need money from the person (often saying it’s urgent and has to be secret)
• there might be sexual abuse
• the scammer repeats the scam and gets more money from the person
• the scammer may ask the person to transfer money for them and make them a money mule

Scammers will put a lot of detail into their reasons for why they need you to send money. They’ll often try to make you panic and send money quickly.

Read Police UK’s guidance on romance fraud for more detail on how it can look and stories from people who’ve experienced it.

If you want to tell us about romance fraud, you can report it online, by phone, or in person.

Report it using our online form

Learn about other ways you can report a crime to us

If someone you’re dating online threatens you or asks for money, you should:

• refuse to pay the person
• cut off all contact
• try to keep evidence that we could use to catch them
• report it to the dating platform

To protect yourself from romance fraud, it’s important to know how to spot it.

Some common types of romance scam are:

• foot-in-the-door: the scammer asks for a small sum of money, then increases the amount in later requests
• face-in-the-door: they start with an amount of money so large that most people will refuse, then ask for a smaller amount
• webcam blackmail: the person performs sexual acts on a video call and the scammer threatens to share the recording unless they pay (sextortion)

Celebrity romance scams

Sometimes, scammers will pretend to be famous people (a type of phishing).

Dating apps are a common place for celebrity romance scams. Scammers use the popularity of the famous person to build emotional connections.

In a celebrity romance scams, the scammer might:

• claim they cannot meet in person because of their fame
• use images or posts stolen from real accounts
• make AI-generated video messages
• ask for funds for fake causes
• offer fake invitations to VIP events or celebrity meet-ups (which you must pay for)

Methods romance scammers can use

Romance scammers will use lots of different methods. They can:

• abuse you financially and mentally
• try to make you feel guilty
• isolate you from friends and family
• ask you to keep secrets or move to a different app
• overwhelm you with messages and stop you from sleeping
• gaslight you (for example, they might pretend you never sent any money)
• ignore your messages until you do what they want

To help stop romance fraud happening to you, it can help to:

• be wary of messages from people you do not know (scams often start as phishing through public social media profiles and groups)
• avoid sharing your personal information
• use well-known apps and sites
• avoid sending money or bank details to anyone you meet online
• use credit card or online payment services (such as PayPal) for online payments, rather than direct transfers
• be aware that banks are not responsible for getting your money back if there’s fraud