People looking for love online are being warned to stay vigilant amid a new wave of romance scams, with victims losing £4,000 on average. Finance experts Nerdwallet said research from Barclays Bank had found a 60% rise in the amount of money lost in the last quarter.
A romance scam is when someone pretends to be interested in starting a romantic relationship with a fellow dater online, gaining their trust and eventually conning them out of their money. According to the bank’s research, people aged 51 to 60 are most at risk, accounting for 35% of all money lost to romance scams.
Brean Horne, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet, has listed her top tips on how to spot and avoid a scam: