Romance Scams & Deepfakes—AI is Changing the Face of Online Frauds

Can you imagine waking up and finding out that your lover is a fraudster after losing money or identity? Thrilling, right? Falling in love seems risky because fraudsters impersonate others under the cover of romance. Many people, especially youngsters, fall victim to romance scams these days. Face-swapping technology through video chats continues to disarm online love-seekers. It is a depressing reality in this age when the other end of a video call might be a scammer. Everything they do, including speaking, body language, and even their faces, are lies.

Online dating scams have become more clear regarding their methods. Also, these scams can cause prominent emotional harm to victims. Scammers can change their image and voice with the help of widely available AI tools and nothing but a laptop or smartphone. For instance, using AI mirroring, they can act like someone else because they repeat every expression on their face during a video chat—it feels real but is all a deepfake.

What are Romance Scams?

Suppose, you connect with someone special through an online dating app or site, and soon they start an interesting conversation that you’re enjoying, right? But suddenly that person is suggesting that you move the conversation over WhatsApp, email, call, or private message. They also quickly confess their “love” for you during the first or second conversation. Despite confessing their “love” for you, they often fabricate stories, such as needing money for plane tickets or urgent medical expenses, to get sympathy and financial assistance.

Once they have established trust, scammers will come up with a fake emergency that calls for money, airfare, or medical bills. Romance scams usually start with scammers creating fake social media or dating app profiles to prey on the victims and make the bond stronger with them. However, the 2021 reports revealed that victims lost $547 million, payments were usually made with gift cards, and cryptocurrency was the largest financial loss.

Emotional & Financial Impact of Deepfake Romance Fraud

Romance scams result in double hurt emotionally leaving them humiliated, lonely, and financially drained. To add to the financial loss, scam artists normally take huge amounts of money from their unsuspecting victims once they are ordered under pretenses to do so. Most of the victims suffer financial instability or are in debt before realizing that they have been duped. Dual damage like loss of emotion and money creates long-term effects that may take years to recover, both as a human and financially.

Factors Contributing to the Growth of Dating App Scams

Romance scams online have emerged as a fast-growing problem because scammers manipulate the rising use of dating applications and social forums. Rare cases of online dating app fraud have now become a common issue affecting several lives every year. As per 2022 statistics, up to 70,000 cases of romance scams led to money losses of over $1.3 billion. 

However, these scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Even a tech expert can find it hard to spot the deepfake scams. The problem evolved because fraudsters, nowadays, employ the newest techniques also, which involve deepfakes and AI in the process of deceiving. 

No more does it focus on a specific segment of society; today, it attacks all ages of people, genders, and vulnerable backgrounds. Moreover, every age group across this world is feeling emotional pain and monetary loss because of these dating app scams.

Romance scams have long been among the most popular scamming crimes in circulation. But 2020, to say the least, accelerated the pace of what happened. To date, three main reasons have greatly influenced the sudden sharp surge this fraud has witnessed over the last three years.

Pandemic-Era Isolation

Many of us started isolating and following social distancing in early 2020; our insecurities and uncertainty then reached a peak. Humans are love-driven by nature, but during COVID-19, they limited their social interactions. Therefore, people come online to get the best connection. 

This scenario has provided fraudsters with a perfect chance for catfishing scams. Besides that, fraudsters take advantage of loneliness due to social isolation among youngsters. This situation complicates the danger detection, like inconsistencies or suspicious demands for money. 

Without the social safety of networks and support, more people become vulnerable to these frauds. The emotional costs of the Pandemic made things worse, which made people more vulnerable to scammers’ sweet talk and love promises. These fraudsters use flattering words and provide hope for the future as they exploit the victims into doing their bidding. 

Developing Comfort with Dating Apps

The number of Americans who started using dating apps in 2019 has made the best comfort with such platforms due to unlimited options. These apps have customized options for every age bracket, interest, and demographic so people are using such apps for friendship or travel companion purposes too apart from being in a relationship. 

The online dating trend is growing rapidly, so the chances of scammers are also getting high to get an advantage out of it for unsuspecting users. Scammers create fake profiles by using tactics such as deepfake identity theft to sophisticatedly imitate real people. Also, scammers are willing to spend as much time as they can because they find a large pool of potential victims to manipulate. Scammers spend months putting in that time communicating with the victims daily and instilling love in their hearts before finally conjuring up excuses to come for their money. 

Cryptocurrency Rise

The rise of cryptocurrency is another important reason for romance scams online and it has surged in 2023. Crypto used to be a niche industry but now established more. Bitcoin started on Coinbase in 2012 but now its price has gone up to 311, 000%. The rapidly growing interest in crypto has gained a huge scammer’s attention and they use it to fool their victims by acting to provide innovative, and high-rewarding investment chances. Unlike other kinds of payments, cryptocurrency is decentralized and anonymous; for these reasons, it is the favorite tool used by scammers. They often ask for victims to make payments in crypto because it is not possible to trace or recover the funds once transferred, thus giving easy ways out while maximizing their earnings.

Scammer’s Method To Use Deepfake Technology

Scammers, these days are more advanced now, particularly when they target vulnerable online dating platforms. Also, this has represented the online dating identity verification influential in protecting against scams. However, scammers are continuously getting new methods for the wrong use of technology for their planning. Here are some of the common methods they use are mentioned below: 

1. Spoofed Phone Numbers: They use fabricated phone numbers to show their calls are real, causing people to think that they are connected with a trusted source.                 

2. Deepfake Videos: Advanced AI tools that scammers use to create deepfake videos that mimic real life while holding an actual identity that is faked to deceive their victims.

3. Phishing Websites: These websites are similar to web pages from which you would be in a better place not to provide sensitive information since they are fake.

4. Social Engineering: Scammers also create fake accounts on social media or emails to build trust and exploit victims to reveal personal details.

5. Fake Video Calls: They use technology to make a fake video call, usually using fake identities to fool the victim.

Signs of Video Call Dating Scams

One such diversified crime is online dating, where hackers come in through high-tech advancement to con easily unsuspecting people. Probably one of the most scary forms of this is deepfake technology wherein scammers can create a nearly lifelike falsified identity in video calls. You are going to safeguard your emotional and financial well-being by being able to identify deepfake video call dating scams.

• Scammers use extremely shallow and unrealistic profiles with few photos, low social media activities, and jobs that keep them away.
• They make and adjust fake stories that fit every situation.
• Also, they usually claim for the in-person meet-up but end up making excuses like, living abroad, or working on military duty.  
• Fraudsters teach you how to use the platform for transferring money-wire transfer, gift cards, or cryptocurrency to make it difficult to reclaim.
• Catfishers fasten the relationship using the love-bombing tactic coupled with promises for a future together.
• They will usually say they are too busy to participate in a live video call or even find ridiculous reasons not to give away their identities. 
• It is only during a live video call that they agreed that a person uses deepfake technology to appear convincing and fake at the same time.
• They use prepared lines, such as “Trust me” or “I can’t video call,” to manipulate and enable false intimacy.

Facia’s Plan Against Romance Scams

As romance scams online through platforms such as Tinder and other dating applications continue to cause emotional and financial pain to many users, there is a growing need for personal verification solutions. Facia could expand to offer direct services to individual users by offering an app-based solution. It would work in the service by allowing users to confirm whether a dating profile they come across on apps is authentic or not. It would check for the characteristics of a deepfake or phony behavior and help them avoid further indulgence. Uploading profile information or images into the Facia app enables real-time confirmation, thereby ensuring the safety of users from scams or manipulative romance fraudsters online.