Valentine’s Day 2023: Romance scams see people looking for love in the West Midlands losing millions

As Valentine’s Day approaches, people are being urged to be on their guard against dating scammers - with figures showing people looking for love in the West Midlands losing millions.

Victims of romance fraud in the UK lost a combined £88 million to criminals last year, with nearly 8,000 incidents reported to Action Fraud nationwide. And this could be the tip of the iceberg, with many more victims thought to be too embarrassed to report the matter to police.

In the West Midlands the figures show that hundreds of scams were reported - with victims losing almost £3m - the highest amount in England and Wales, outside London.

The data shows that perhaps surprisingly, given that younger people are assumed to be more digitally savvy, it is people in their 20s who are most likely to report a dating scam. Nearly a fifth of dating scams (19%) were reported by people aged 20 to 29 last year, followed by people in their fifties (18%) and forties (17%).

Figures published by Action Fraud, which works on behalf of police in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, show men and women are both targeted by scammers fairly equally. Of the victims who revealed their gender to police last year, 51% were male and 49% female.

Looking at age and gender together, men in their 20s were most likely to fall victim to the romance scams, followed by women in their 50s.

Three high street financial institutions - Lloyds Bank, Nationwide Building Society and TSB - have all issued separate warnings and advice on what they call ‘romance fraud’ in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.

What does the data show for the West Midlands & how does it compare?

There were 328 dating scams reported to West Midlands Police in 2022, with victims reporting £2,800,000 in losses. This means there were 11.2 scams per 100,000 residents in the West Midlands in 2022. The number of scams in the region was the second highest out of any police force named in the country.

The Metropolitan Police reported the highest number of romance scams with 1,088 last year, costing victims £14,700,000 in losses. There were 703 scams which could not be attributed to any single police force, costing victims a combined £12,700,000 in losses.

Thames Valley Police was fourth in the list with 318 scams and £3,200,000 in victim losses, with West Yorkshire police recording the fifth most scams in 2022 with 290 and £3,300,000 losses.

But the police force area with the highest rate of reported scams was Gloucestershire at 23.7 reports per 100,000 residents, followed by Dyfed-Powys in Wales (18.9) and Nottinghamshire (17.0).

West Midlands woman lost £113,000 through dating scam

In 2021, a woman from Brownhills in Walsall revealed that she was facing bankruptcy after losing thousands of pounds through a dating scam.

Fifty year-old Rachel Elwell told the BBC that she lost just under £113,000 after a man who claimed he lived nearby, said he had gone abroad for an engineering contract in Ukraine. Rachel said she was convinced by documents and pictures that he needed money after saying he had been taken captive by loan sharks.

She said: “When he said to me his life was in danger and I didn’t hear from him, I thought he’d been murdered. Can you imagine feeling you’re responsible for whether someone lives or dies?”

The scammer told Ms Elwell that she would have to wait weeks for the two of them to meet as he needed to stay in Ukraine due to law changes from Covid, meaning he now had to pay tax before any of his engineering works could get underway.

She said a supposed tax office had sent a letter to him, which she had a copy of which told him to pay 160 thousand pounds. Ms Elwell was told by the man that he cashed his pension in and sold his car to pay the money

She added: “At this point I think it was about £45k I’d sent him to help him with the tax bill.”

What’s been said about the data?

Liz Ziegler, Fraud Prevention Director at Lloyds Bank, said: “The convincing lies told by fraudsters mean that while romance scam victims think they are falling in love, they’re actually falling for a scam. As well as losing thousands of pounds they also have to deal with this emotional betrayal.

“The sad truth is there was never any genuine connection, with criminals ruthlessly targeting multiple victims at the same time, and disappearing with the money as soon as they get found out.”

How a typical dating scam works and how to protect yourself

Scammers will usually target victims on social media platforms, particularly Facebook, or dating apps such as Tinder. They might then try to move the conversation onto another private messaging platform, like WhatsApp.

Typically they will come across as very caring and attentive, messaging back and forth – sometimes over a period of months – to build trust and give the impression that the relationship is genuine.

The fraudster may have scoured social profiles to help persuade their victim that they are the perfect match based on shared interests or personal circumstances.

Often they will claim to be living or working abroad to explain why they can’t meet in person. They might also invent reasons why they can’t turn their camera on during calls.

Eventually they will start to tell stories about family or legal issues, business problems or medical bills. They might appear reluctant to accept any help at first, or request smaller amounts, but this is all part of the con. Over time they convince their victim to send more and more money.

Action Fraud advises people using online dating services to:

• Be suspicious of any requests for money from someone you have never met in person, particularly if you have only recently met online;
• Speak to your family or friends to get advice;
• Perform a reverse image search on profile photos - this can find images that have been taken from somewhere else.

They also advise that you do not:

• Send money to someone you have never met in person, allow them access to your bank account or take out a loan for them;
• Invest your own money on their advice;
• Give them copies of your personal documents, such as passports;
• Purchase and send the codes on gift cards from Amazon or iTunes;
• Receive or send parcels on their behalf, such as laptops or mobile phones.