BIRMINGHAM, Ala. ( WIAT ) — They may gain your affection by saying “I love you,” make a marriage proposal and then ask for money.
The FBI said these are signs of what a romance scam looks like. Brett King, FBI special agent, said the elderly are the most vulnerable to romance scams.
“What we picture is one lone person doing this whole work,” King said. “No, it’s a whole assembly line of people following a script, and they have really turned it into a science.”
He said scammers are now using artificial intelligence as a tactic to con people.
“The way they speak and how they write words now, AI can write a letter from somebody next door,” King said.
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In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission announced 70,000 people reported a romance scam with loses hitting a staggering $1.3 billion.
King said someone asking for money online but either never meets you or has an excuse about meeting is a big red flag.
“The stories go from ‘I’m sick, or I have a shipment of gold that I’m trying to get across, and I’m trying to give you the ambassador of whatever email address,’ and you got to pay a shipment fee to get your money back,” King said. “These are signs where you probably not what you think it is.”