Scots are being warned to be on the lookout for signs of romance and companionship fraud in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.
Advice Direct Scotland, which runs the national consumer advice service consumeradvice.scot, has launched a new campaign in order to gain insight into tactics used by scammers to exploit situations of loneliness or isolation of their targets.
The Romance and Companionship Scams campaign (ROMCOM) will look at bank transfer fraud, ‘love bombing’, blackmail, and other manipulation techniques that people closer to the scams may misunderstand or misinterpret as displays of affection. It will also focus on non-romantic scams perpetrated by family members and fraudsters posing as them through apps like WhatsApp.
