Romance scam statistics 2026: what the official figures really show

Every day in 2025, people in Britain handed almost £280,000 to someone they believed they were falling for. That is the arithmetic behind the City of London Police figures published on 5 May 2026: more than £102 million lost to romance fraud in a single year, across 10,784 reports, a rise of 29 per cent on 2024. The average loss was £9,500. The largest single case reached £1 million.

Britain is not an outlier. In the United States, the FBI logged close to $930 million in confidence and romance fraud losses for the same year. Australia’s combined figure was A$139.9 million. And every one of those agencies says the real number is higher, because most people never report.

Below, we have gathered the latest official romance scam statistics country by country, set out how the scams now work, and listed exactly where to report one.

Romance scam figures at a glance

Country	Latest figure	Period	Published by
UK	£102m lost, 10,784 reports	2025	City of London Police (Report Fraud)
UK	£39.2m lost, 6,335 cases	2025	UK Finance (bank-reported cases)
US	$929.3m lost, 23,159 complaints	2025	FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center
Australia	A$139.9m lost	2025	National Anti-Scam Centre (combined data)
Canada	Romance fraud among top three frauds by financial impact	2025	Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre

UK romance fraud figures: what police and banks recorded

Police data: £102 million and rising

The police figures come from Report Fraud, the national reporting service run by City of London Police. It replaced Action Fraud on 4 December 2025, keeping the same phone number, so anyone who still thinks of “Action Fraud” is reporting to the right place.

According to the force, people aged 55 to 74 suffered the greatest losses, accounting for almost half the total stolen. Men submitted more reports overall, but women made up just over 40 per cent of the value reported. London’s Metropolitan Police area recorded the largest losses at £12.1 million, followed by Hampshire (£3.45 million), Essex (£3.2 million), Thames Valley (£3.18 million) and Devon and Cornwall (£3.1 million).

The force also named the tools of the trade: fake profiles on social media and dating sites, AI-generated images and messages to prop up false identities, and bogus investment opportunities, including cryptocurrency. Detective Superintendent Oliver Little put it simply: “Romance fraud is particularly harmful because it targets trust and emotional connection.”

Bank data: the slow drip of payments

UK Finance, the banking trade body, measures something narrower. Its Annual Fraud Report 2026, published in June, counts authorised push payment (APP) cases, where victims are tricked into sending money themselves, as reported by its member firms.

On that measure, the full report records 6,335 romance scam cases in 2025, up 22 per cent, with losses of £39.2 million, up 23 per cent from £31.8 million. The most revealing number is a quieter one: victims made an average of 9.7 payments per romance scam, the highest of all eight APP scam types UK Finance tracks. That is the signature of a long con, with trust built first and money extracted in instalments.

The police and bank figures do not reconcile, and are not meant to. One counts crime reports from victims, whatever the payment method; the other counts cases logged by banks and payment firms. Read together, they point the same way: up.

US romance scam data from the FBI and FTC

The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report recorded 1,008,597 complaints and $20.877 billion in total losses. Confidence and romance fraud accounted for 23,159 complaints and $929,287,469. The Register’s analysis of the report ranks it as the fifth most costly category of cybercrime.

Two other lines in the same report matter for anyone dating online. Cryptocurrency investment fraud, the category into which many romance-led “investment” scams fall, cost victims $7.2 billion across 61,559 complaints. And people aged 60 and over reported $7.748 billion in losses across 201,266 complaints.

The Federal Trade Commission runs a separate database, Consumer Sentinel. In testimony to Congress on 25 March 2026, the FTC said consumers filed 3 million fraud reports in 2025 and reported $15.9 billion in losses, up from just over $12 billion the year before. Investment scams made up $7.9 billion of that.

On romance specifically, an FTC consumer alert in May 2026 said reported romance scam losses rose 22 per cent in 2025, working out at about $2,020 per person. An analysis of the FTC’s public dashboard by NordVPN, a VPN company, counted 55,604 romance scam reports in the first three quarters of 2025 alone, 61 per cent involving a financial loss, with total reported losses of $1.162 billion and a median loss of around $2,050.

The FTC’s nine-month total exceeds the FBI’s full-year figure because they are different databases fed by different people. Neither is a census.

Australia’s romance scam losses: two ways to count

Australia publishes the most granular data of any country here. The National Anti-Scam Centre’s Targeting Scams report for 2025, released on 30 March 2026, combines data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, IDCARE, the banks’ AFCX exchange and ASIC. On that basis, romance scams cost Australians A$139.9 million in 2025, down 10.8 per cent from A$156.8 million, and remained the third-highest loss category. All scams combined cost A$2.18 billion across 481,523 reports.

Scamwatch’s own reports tell a different story. In a 5 February 2026 warning, the centre said romance scam losses reported to Scamwatch rose 21.8 per cent to more than A$28.6 million, affecting 1,330 people. Online contact through social media, dating platforms and forums accounted for more than 80 per cent of those losses.

The report also describes a Romance Scam Fusion Cell that referred 1,004 suspected scam transactions and 168 suspect cryptocurrency wallet addresses, a reminder of where much of the money now goes.

Canada, and the problem with every number here

The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre said Canadians lost more than C$704 million to fraud of all kinds in 2025, with romance fraud among the top three frauds by financial impact, behind investment fraud. Its March 2026 release also contains the caveat that hangs over every statistic in this article: only 5 to 10 per cent of frauds are reported.

The official figures are best read as a floor, not a total.

How romance scams work in 2026

Pig-butchering: romance meets fake investment

The fastest-growing variant has a grim name. The US Treasury’s financial crimes unit, FinCEN, issued an alert in September 2023 on what it called “pig butchering”: scammers build a relationship using invented identities, steer the victim towards what looks like a legitimate cryptocurrency investment platform, let the “profits” grow on screen, then take everything. FinCEN said the schemes are largely run by criminal enterprises based in South East Asia, which use victims of labour trafficking to contact large numbers of people.

The FBI report describes the same model under the heading of cryptocurrency investment scams. For daters, the tell is a conversation that drifts from feelings to finance, usually with an offer to “show you how”.

Synthetic faces, scripted messages

City of London Police now explicitly cites AI-generated images and messages as part of romance fraud. A photograph that looks too polished or a message that reads like it was written by committee is no longer just an awkward profile; it can be part of the toolkit. We look at the wider picture in our report on AI in dating.

Sextortion: fast, not slow

Sextortion inverts the romance scam’s patience. The National Crime Agency warned in April 2024 that financially motivated sextortion, where offenders threaten to share intimate images (real or fabricated) unless paid, is often run by overseas organised crime groups, mainly in parts of West Africa, with some in South East Asia. Some offenders moved from first contact to blackmail in under an hour. Reports of global cases to the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children more than doubled in 2023, to 26,718. The FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion submissions in 2025.

The NCA’s advice is consistent: do not pay, stop contact, keep the evidence and report it. Paying rarely ends the threats.

Warning signs of a romance scam

Regulators in the UK, US and Australia publish strikingly similar lists. Drawing on City of London Police, the FTC and Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre, these are the patterns to watch:

• Speed. Strong declarations of feeling very early, often mirroring your interests and values.
• A move off the app. Pressure to switch quickly to WhatsApp, text or email, away from the platform’s safety tools.
• Always a reason not to meet. An oil rig, a military posting, a job overseas, a sudden travel ban, or a camera that never works on video calls.
• Money, in small steps. Requests that start modestly and escalate: medical bills, visas, flights, customs fees, or an “opportunity” in crypto.
• Hard-to-reverse payments. Gift cards, wire transfers, payment apps and cryptocurrency.
• Secrecy. Encouragement not to tell friends or family.

ACCC Acting Chair Catriona Lowe’s advice was blunt: “Do not send money, cryptocurrency or gift cards to someone you have not met in person.” Identity checks help too, which is why our ranking of the best dating apps weighs verification alongside price.

Where to report a romance scam

If you have sent money, contact your bank or card provider first, immediately. Then report it.

• England, Wales and Northern Ireland: Report Fraud online at reportfraud.police.uk, or call 0300 123 2040.
• Scotland: Police Scotland on 101, according to City of London Police guidance.
• United States: the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. The FTC also advises telling the app or site where you met.
• Australia: Scamwatch’s reporting form; cybercrime victims are directed to make a police report via cyber.gov.au. Call 000 if anyone is in immediate danger.
• Canada: the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
• Sextortion involving anyone under 18 (UK): call 101, or 999 if there is immediate risk, and use the CEOP Safety Centre, as set out by the National Crime Agency.

Report the profile to the dating app as well. It may not get your money back, but it can stop the same account reaching the next person.

Reading the romance fraud data: our analysis

Three things stand out. First, the UK is moving the wrong way fastest: a 29 per cent jump in police reports and a 22 per cent rise in bank cases, in the same year. Some of that may reflect a new reporting service and better awareness, but the losses rose too.

Second, the money is concentrated among older daters. Almost half of UK losses fell on 55 to 74-year-olds, and the FBI’s over-60s figure dwarfs most other categories. These are people with savings, pensions and, often, less experience of how quickly a dating app conversation can be steered.

Third, romance and investment fraud are merging. When FinCEN, the FBI, City of London Police and the Australian authorities all point to cryptocurrency, the old image of a lonely-hearts con asking for plane fare looks dated. Today’s scam often wants to make you rich first.

For the wider context of how people meet now, see our research on how couples meet and our round-up of online dating statistics.

Frequently asked questions

How much was lost to romance scams in the UK in 2025?

More than £102 million, across 10,784 reports to Report Fraud, according to City of London Police figures published in May 2026. UK Finance separately recorded £39.2 million in bank-reported romance scam cases.

Is Action Fraud still the place to report fraud?

Action Fraud was replaced by Report Fraud on 4 December 2025. The website is reportfraud.police.uk and the phone number, 0300 123 2040, is unchanged. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.

What is a pig-butchering scam?

A scam in which a fraudster builds a relationship, often romantic, then persuades the victim to “invest” in a fake cryptocurrency platform before taking the funds. FinCEN says these schemes are largely run by criminal groups based in South East Asia.

Who is most at risk of romance fraud?

In the UK, people aged 55 to 74 accounted for almost half of losses reported to police in 2025. Anyone can be targeted, and scammers increasingly use AI-generated photos and messages to appear convincing.

Can I get my money back after a romance scam?

Contact your bank or payment provider immediately, as police and the FTC both advise. Speed matters, particularly before money moves on. Then report to the relevant national service listed above.

Sources

• City of London Police, “Romance fraud costs UK victims £102 million in a year as reports surge by nearly a third” (5 May 2026): https://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/news/city-of-london/news/2026/may/romance-fraud-costs-uk-victims-102-million-in-a-year-as-reports-surge-by-nearly-a-third
• GOV.UK, “Report Fraud: new service from City of London Police” (4 December 2025): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/report-fraud-new-service-from-city-of-london-police
• UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026: https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/policy-and-guidance/reports-and-publications/annual-fraud-report-2026
• UK Finance, Annual Fraud Report 2026 (PDF): https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/2026-06/UK%20Finance%20Annual%20Fraud%20Report%202026.pdf
• FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report: https://www.ic3.gov/AnnualReport/Reports/2025_IC3Report.pdf
• FTC, testimony to the Joint Economic Committee (25 March 2026): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/03/ftc-testifies-joint-economic-committee-agencys-efforts-combat-fraud
• FTC Consumer Alert, “New trends in reports of imposter scams” (May 2026): https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2026/05/new-trends-reports-imposter-scams
• FTC, “What to know about romance scams”: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/what-know-about-romance-scams
• NordVPN, analysis of FTC romance scam data: https://nordvpn.com/research-lab/this-month-in-data/us-romance-scam-losses/
• National Anti-Scam Centre, Targeting Scams 2025 (30 March 2026): https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/research-and-resources/targeting-scams-report/targeting-scams-report-of-the-national-anti-scam-centre-on-scams-data-and-activity-2025
• National Anti-Scam Centre, romance scam warning (5 February 2026): https://www.nasc.gov.au/news/understand-how-criminals-exploit-online-relationships-and-inflict-heartache
• Scamwatch, Report a scam: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/report-a-scam
• Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre, Fraud Prevention Month release (6 March 2026): https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/news-nouvelles/2026/2026-03-06-eng.htm
• FinCEN, alert on “pig butchering” (8 September 2023): https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-issues-alert-prevalent-virtual-currency-investment-scam-commonly-known
• National Crime Agency, sextortion warning (29 April 2024): https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-issues-urgent-warning-about-sextortion
• The Register, romance scam figures (5 May 2026): https://theregister.com/2026/05/05/romance_scam_figures