It seems like scams are everywhere these days – in our texts, emails, and phone calls to boot. And scammers continue to become more sophisticated in the age of AI, so much so that a recent survey suggested they are increasingly impersonating the people you love.
Others also play on people’s vulnerability and loneliness, masquerading as potential love interests: Romance scammers. New research from anti-virus company McAfee has found that two in five adults (18-24) experience potential romance scams every week, more often than adults 65+ (one in 20).
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15 percent of Americans say they have lost money to an online dating or romance scam, McAfee reports. Men are more likely to report a loss (21 percent) than women (10 percent). And while most losses are less than $500 (especially among young adults who are scammed), some can be in the thousands; only men reported losses of more than $5,000.
And it’s not just scammers who join the most popular dating apps looking for a scam. Tinder recently required all new US users to scan their face when signing up, for one reason to prevent scams. (Hinge will be testing this soon.) But bad actors are also creating fake clones of these dating apps.
One-third of adults surveyed by McAfee received an invitation to a fake “exclusive” or “invitation-only” dating app, and 14 percent signed up and shared personal or payment information. And Tinder clones account for nearly half of all malicious app activity, McAfee found. Between Dec. 1, 2025 and Jan. 22, 2026, 78 percent of all fake dating app installations were fake versions of More Fish.
Visa Scam Disruption has had similar results, according to Visa’s chief risk and customer services officer, Paul Fabara, in a blog post about romance scams leading up to Valentine’s Day. The team discovered a love scheme that was “an entire network of dating sites designed to simulate love and lure unsuspecting people into recurring payment traps.”
Red flags of romance fraud
Watch out for those “exclusive” dating app invitations. There are apps that allow you to apply for membership rather than just create a profile – like Raya – but those are few and far between. If you want to download a dating app, your best bet is to go to your phone’s app store.
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Here are some red flags to watch out for:
A love bomb
If someone says they’re dating you after a few messages, that’s a red flag — even if they don’t want your money. If a potential lover rushes into intimacy, it can be tempting to go along with it, especially if you’re lonely, but it’s not the norm. The old saying goes: If it seems “too good to be true,” it probably is. The same goes for glossy dating app profiles with perfect (filtered?) photos and cutesy bios.
“Romance scams don’t start with money. They start with trust,” said McAfee’s head of threat research, Abhishek Karnik. “Scammers blend in with everyday dating and social media, take the time to build emotional familiarity, and make the relationship feel real before the scam begins.”
Urgent requests for money
Is someone you matched with on a dating app – or someone who seems like a long-lost friend of yours – saying they need money right now? It’s a sign that they want just that from you: Money. And they may even threaten to end the conversation, writes Fabara, in an effort to keep you connected.
Asking for sensitive information
Do you ask to check out, and they ask for your bank details first? Be careful. Like asking for money, asking for this sensitive data is not something anyone would want to do if they were just trying to get to know you. These people may just want to know your bank accounts.
It tries to log you out of the app – but not IRL
If the same is sending you strange QR codes, links, or asking for a verification code? That’s a bright, red flag. Also, don’t send money, and it’s best practice not to click on any unusual links.
The worst is when the person you are talking to refuses to video chat or meet them in person. “Consistent excuses for avoiding face-to-face interaction indicate that they may be hiding their true identity,” Fabara wrote.
As scams become more difficult to exploit, we must learn the clues. Stay safe this Valentine’s Day.
