Kent Police is warning that romance fraud is on the rise, and it’s costing victims – not just financially, but emotionally too. Victims of romance fraud often suffer not just financial loss but emotional trauma, broken trust, and damaged relationships with family and friends. During Romance Fraud Awareness Week, they’re urging everyone to stay vigilant to protect themselves from criminals who prey on innocent people looking for love. Here are a few tips:
How Romance Fraud criminals work:
- Create fake personas: They use stolen photos and fake identities—often posing as celebrities, military personnel, doctors, or overseas workers to appear trustworthy and appealing.
- Build emotional bonds: They spend time gaining their victim’s trust, often through daily messages and calls sharing false personal information, and stories of traumatic experiences they have allegedly been through.
- Declaring their love: They declare their love or their deep feelings early on in the relationship, often before they have ever met you in person!
- Isolating tactics: They encourage secrecy and discourage victims from discussing the new relationship with friends or family, making it harder for others to spot the scam.
- Invent emergencies: Once trust is established, criminals create fake urgent situations—medical emergencies, travel issues, or investment opportunities—to pressure victims into sending money or purchasing them gift cards.
- Exploit kindness: Criminals may not ask for money directly but instead they’ll rely on the victim’s empathy and desire to help. Some criminals even send gifts or money first to build credibility and a false sense of security before asking for financial help.
- Use multiple platforms: Criminals quickly steer conversations away from the dating app or platform you have met them on to encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram or Zangi – to keep their messages private.
- Launder money: Victims may be asked to receive or send parcels or money, unknowingly becoming part of a wider money laundering operation.
How to stay safe from Romance Fraud:
- Never send money or share bank details with someone you haven’t met in person.
- Report any incidents of fraud to your bank’s fraud team.
- Report suspicious activity to Action Fraud: You can can make a report Online by visiting the official Action Fraud website: www.actionfraud.police.uk or by Phone: 0300 123 2040 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm)
- Talk to someone you trust if you’re unsure – criminals thrive in silence.
How to reverse image search a suspicious account
If you suspect someone online may be using a fake photo—especially in a romance scam—you can use reverse image search to check if their profile picture appears elsewhere on the internet.
Here’s how:
- Go to images.google.com
- Click the camera icon in the search bar.
- Choose “Upload an image” or “Paste image URL”
- Google will show where else that image appears online—often revealing stolen photos from modelling sites, social media, or stock image libraries
- or:
- Visit www.tineye.com.
- Upload the image TinEye will scan the internet to find other websites where that image has been uploaded, including older versions of the image.