--- title: Lonely Americans were swindled out of millions in romance scams - The Hustle description: Romance scams, in which a scammer fakes a relationship with a victim to get money, have become increasingly prevalent — and costly. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/814149493-News-Brief_2022-02-01T032814.849Z.webp --- # Lonely Americans were swindled out of millions in romance scams ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: February 01, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 Talk about a bad breakup: In the 1st 3 quarters of 2021, Americans lost $343m+ to romance scams, per an [analysis](https://atlasvpn.com/blog/romance-scams-cost-americans-almost-350-million-in-2021) by Atlas VPN. ![Lonely Americans were swindled out of millions in romance scams](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/814149493-News-Brief_2022-02-01T032814.849Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=814149493-News-Brief_2022-02-01T032814.849Z.webp) That’s more than all of 2020, in which Americans [reported](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2021/02/romance-scams-take-record-dollars-2020) $304m in romance scams to the FTC, up 50% from 2019. #### **What’s a romance scam?** [According to](https://www.fbi.gov/scams-and-safety/common-scams-and-crimes/romance-scams) the FBI, it’s when a scammer uses a bogus online persona to build a relationship with someone they later con out of money. Romance scammers typically lurk on dating sites or social media to find victims, and may be part of a criminal organization. Common targets are lonely or vulnerable people over 50, often women. Scammers establish trust and affection, then ask for money — perhaps for medical or legal fees, debt, or travel expenses. And they usually want it via some less traceable means, like gift or reload cards, transfers, or [crypto](https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-60114889). #### **Some common red flags:** - They repeatedly promise to meet IRL, but something always comes up - The relationship escalates very quickly, even talking marriage without meeting face-to-face - They attempt to isolate victims from friends or family - They ask for financial info or intimate photos that could be used for extortion **Why the boom in romance scams?** One theory: the pandemic. People have a [good excuse](https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2021/02/romance-scams-take-record-dollars-2020) for not wanting to meet in person and have been more isolated than ever. A recent study [found](https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america) 36% of Americans are feeling “serious loneliness.” **Btw:** Some scammers are brazen enough to do it in person, like John Meehan — subject of *The Los Angeles Times*’ “[Dirty John](https://www.latimes.com/projects/la-me-dirty-john/)” series — or Derek Alldred, who, [per](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/04/our-time-com-con-man/554057/)* The Atlantic*, scammed 12+ women out of ~$1m. 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Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Juliet Bennett Rylah", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/juliet-bennett-rylah" }, "datePublished" : "2022-02-01T11:32:57.000Z", "headline" : "Lonely Americans were swindled out of millions in romance scams", "image" : [ "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/814149493-News-Brief_2022-02-01T032814.849Z.webp" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/02012022-romance-scams", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Juliet Bennett Rylah", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T20:19:11+0000", "datePublished" : "2022-02-01T11:32:57+0000", "headline" : "Lonely Americans were swindled out of millions in romance scams", "image" : [ "https://7355427.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/7355427/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/814149493-News-Brief_2022-02-01T032814.849Z.webp" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```