The Federal Bureau of Investigation is advising residents to be mindful of where they seek true love throughout the month of February.
The FBI Kansas City Division is using the month of love to highlight the dangers of romance fraud. This type of fraud sees scammers targeting people in search of companionship and con them out of their money.
Scammers typically target their victims via social media and email and, according to the FBI Kansas City Division, has led to the largest number of financial losses than any other Internet-facilitated crime. According to a report from the Internet Crime Complaint Center a total of 23,768 victims collectively were scammed out of more than $6.1 million in 2020 alone.
In June of last year, a Kansas City man was sentenced to three years in federal prison for his involvement in a romantic fraud scheme that robbed victims of more than $900,000 both in the US and overseas.
To help residents avoid becoming a victim of romance fraud, the FBI has developed a page with resources to help spot romantic scammers. To access the resource page click here.
