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Romance scammers increasingly posing as savvy investors, experts claim

Nationwide Building Society has warned that romance scammers are increasingly posing as savvy investors, moving away from traditional "emergency pleas" to lure victims with promises of fake profits.
Reported cases of these scams increased by 5 per cent between 2024 and 2025, with women typically losing £4,100 per incident, significantly more than the £2,600 lost by men.
Individuals over 55 accounted for 62 per cent of cases, while under-30s, despite representing only 6 per cent of incidents, bore 14 per cent of the total financial losses.
Jim Winters, Nationwide's head of economic crime, stated that this trend reflects a wider rise in "blended romance investment fraud," where fraudsters use crafted personas and fabricated wealth to build trust before steering targets into high-loss schemes.
The financial institution also highlighted that while their figures were released ahead of Valentine's Day, their data indicates romance scams typically spike in March and September.