Love at first sight? AI making it even harder to detect romance scams

The dating app Tinder is shown on a smartphone in New York on June 26, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, Peter Morgan

As more people look to find love on dating apps and social media these days, so too are those looking to commit romance scams as artificial intelligence makes it harder to know what's real and what isn't

Larry Zelvin, head of BMO’s financial crimes unit, says AI and social media are changing the game.

While financial institutions are using AI systems to help detect fraud, scammers are using those same tools to craft better messages and better videos to perpetrate their crimes.

"AI also will lower the bar for people interested in doing this fraud and don't want to put in the effort," Zelvin says.

“AI will make it easier for them and also more convincing, which is another thing that is highly concerning.”

In a romance scam, fraudsters contact potential victims using a fake profile and work to build a relationship online with the victim before using it as leverage.

Fraudsters can use deep fake technology to create videos where the victim may think they are communicating with a real person, while generative AI might be used to chat online with potential victims.

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The scammers will make excuses for why they can’t meet in person, such as their job requires frequent travel or requires them to be away for long periods of time.

Once they have a victim hooked, they will often make an urgent request for help because of an emergency with a promise to repay quickly or sometimes ask for money to cover travel costs to visit.

Zelvin says a request for money should be a red flag.

"The screaming sign is if somebody asks you for money," he says.

Fraudsters may also ask to move the conversation off the dating service or social media app that they first connected on to other channels that might be harder to track.

But it isn't always a straight request for money. In some cases, fraudsters might ask a potential victim to deposit a cheque for them and to forward the money before the cheque clears or help out on some other financial issue.

In another variation, a scammer will offer a potential victim a chance to invest alongside them in what they pitch as a can't-miss opportunity such as cryptocurrency and then direct them to fake cryptocurrency apps or websites that are used to steal the money. Such investments might even return a small initial profit in a bid to entice the victim to make a larger investment, which will ultimately be stolen.

Other tactics used by scammers can be even more insidious.

Some will troll obituaries, looking for people who have lost loved ones and then tailor their fake profile to their potential victim by using similarities to their former partner in a bid to make themselves more appealing.

Romance scams can be devastating both emotionally and financially for the victim.

Jeff Horncastle, a spokesperson for the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, says there was $52.4 million reported lost to romance fraud in 2023, though he adds the centre estimates only five to 10 per cent of victims report the crime, often because of embarrassment.

Zelvin says there is no one target demographic. The old, young, men and women are all potential victims.

"They will look at people who are on social media that may be looking for a partner, but they really look for people who are very lonely, may have had a very significant loss — people who are vulnerable," he says.

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If you have been a victim, Horncastle stresses there is no shame and urges victims to come forward and tell police what happened because what they know might be important to investigators in other cases.

“What we do is not only share the information for prevention initiatives, but we have the ability to link information together from reports that we receive across Canada with law enforcement internationally," Horncastle says.

“So being the central repository for fraud in Canada, we can link information and share that to support investigations. So you know, the information you could be sharing could be the missing piece of the puzzle.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 18, 2024.