Last year, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received nearly 18,000 reports of confidence/romance scams that resulted in losses of more than $672 million. Perpetrators of romance scams typically find their victims online, often through social media. They use a fake persona to deceive victims into trusting them or believing they’re interested in them romantically while making gradually increasing demands for money, which is usually sent by wire or cryptocurrency. The FBI says there was a record $9.3 billion in losses in the U.S. last year from scams involving cryptocurrency.

Romance scams can be especially costly for victims. The Columbian recently reported that between January 2021 and November 2024, Vancouver residents who were victims of romance scams lost an average of $112,000, according to the Vancouver Police Department. Sgt. Jay Alie, who oversees the VPD’s Property Crime Unit, says that while many romance scam victims are over the age of 60, people in their 30s and 40s have also fallen for them. Alie’s investigations of romance scams have widened beyond Vancouver to reveal other victims across the U.S. who’ve been ensnared in them, acting as middlemen to launder money for scammers they also believed they were in relationships with.

Sgt. Alie joins us for more details about these scams as they grow more sophisticated and shares how to protect yourself or vulnerable loved ones from them.

SC EP:1108 Wildman of the Woods