Romance scam

Common card · No. 276333

A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim's affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud against the victim. Fraudulent acts may involve access to the victim's money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, digital wallets, e-mail accounts, or national identification numbers; or forcing the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf. These scams are often perpetrated by a fraud factory operated by organized criminal gangs, who work together to take money from multiple victims at a time. Pig butchering scam (PBS or PB Scam) is increasingly rampant and widespread type of romance scam which usually also entail the high-yield investment program (HYIP) scam. Scams can be detected and prevented with simple precautions. More money is lost each year to romance scams than to similar internet scams, such as technical support scams.

Read on Wikipedia · Image State Department, Public domain