Consumer Alert: Watch out for Sweetheart Scams this Valentine’s Day

Friday, February 14, 2025

Online dating and social media can be great ways to meet someone new, start a new relationship, or make a new friend. However, it’s important to be careful when interacting with new people online. Some bad actors, also called “sweetheart scammers,” might be looking to earn your trust just to get your money or personal data. This Valentine’s Day, make sure you protect your heart and your wallet.

“Sweetheart scammers will try to take advantage of people who are lonely or going through a difficult time to steal money or private information,” said Attorney General Jeff Jackson. “Be extra careful with who you talk to online and look out for the warning signs of sweetheart scams. Always verify who you’re talking to and be very careful about sharing information about yourself. If you are worried that you may be falling victim to a scam or aren’t sure if the person you’re talking to is safe, call my office and we’ll look into it.”

Sweetheart scammers build relationships online and express false feelings of affection or love to a victim with the intent of stealing money or private data. These scammers often utilize fake profiles on social media and dating sites like LinkedIn, Hinge, Tinder, Facebook, Match, SeniorPeopleMeet, ChristianMingle, and more.

These scams may not always involve romance – some scammers will pretend to simply be your friend to lure you into a false sense of security and steal from you. Romance scams can morph into cryptocurrency scams in which the scammer convinces the victim they can make lots of money by investing in cryptocurrency. For example, a 67-year-old North Carolina man lost his wife due to cancer and was left $200,000 through her life insurance policy. He was contacted on Facebook by someone named “Sherry Li”, who said she was a successful cryptocurrency investor in California. She convinced the man to invest more than $200,000 in cryptocurrency, claiming that his money would grow to $1.3 million. By the time the victim realized this was a scam, he had already lost his money, and his information had been shared with other scammers who then tried to scam him again. Our office worked with the victim to help share this information with federal law enforcement.

Here’s some information about the impacts of sweetheart and cryptocurrency scams in North Carolina in 2024:

Sweetheart/Friend-In-Need Scams:

• 51 complaints
• 25 victims lost $1,833,047
• Average loss of $73,322
• 49% of complainants reported money loss

Cryptocurrency Scams:

• 31 complaints
• 25 victims lost $3,334,408.37
• Average loss of $133,376
• 81% of complainants reported money loss

Here are some signs of sweetheart scams:

• Scammers often target people who have recently lost loved ones and use the tragedy as a pretense to get closer to their target.
• Scammers frequently say they’re a U.S. citizen working in another country, potentially as a nurse, teacher or member of the military.
• Rather than communicating with you only on the dating app or social networking site on which you met, the scammer will try to shift the conversation to text message or email.
• The scammers will try to comfort you by expressing false unconditional love and remaining persistently upbeat and positive.
• Many of these scams take time to develop – months may pass before the scammer asks you for money. This grooming period will involve the scammer convincing the victim that they’re in a strong and legitimate relationship.
• Sweetheart scammers often use one of these reasons for needing your money:
• Airline tickets or travel documents to come to the United States
• Bribes that must be paid before they can leave the country
• Communication costs like a phone bill or Internet access
• School tuition, so they can graduate and come to the U.S.
• A “temporary” financial setback
• A professional crisis that results in personal losses, like banking, finance, or overseas construction projects
• Urgent medical expenses
• To help them recover from a robbery or a mugging

Once it becomes clear that the relationship was a scam, it’s common for victims to feel intense grief or sadness, or even so embarrassed about the situation that they don’t want to share their experience with anyone. The financial loss – sometimes thousands of dollars’ worth – doesn’t make things any easier. But the sooner you report these scams to our office and law enforcement, the more we can try to do to get your money back or prevent others from falling victim to the scam. If you’re concerned you or someone you love might have fallen victim to a sweetheart scammer, contact our office at 1-877-5-NO-SCAM or www.ncdoj.gov/complaint.