SARASOTA – Romance is in the air. And scammers are not just out to steal your hearts, they want your money too.
A victim of romance scams recounts she lost two-million dollars by an online suitor.
“I’ve lost everything,” the victim said. “It’s all I had. It’s an inheritance that I could have passed on to my daughter.”
Florida ranks number two on romance scammers with more than 27,000 victims and, with a total loss of nearly 300 million dollars, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Sarasota has some of the highest numbers in romance scams,” a white-collar crime investigator with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, special agent Ric Volp said.
The FBI and the IRS crime investigators partnered up to stop this kind of fraud.
“We know that in Sarasota, we’re in the millions,” IRS criminal investigation spokesperson, Ryan Thompson said. “Sarasota-Manatee county, we’ve had millions of dollars paid out in these romance scams.”
Investigators say this is a long process; they don’t ask for money when they first reach out. They groom you over a few years.
“They’ll start small, and the more they can loll you along, and get more money out of you, that denomination is going to increase,” Thompson said.
They will take your money through gift cards, wire transfers and through your bank accounts.
“A lot of times what t they’re looking is to use money that’s more difficult or they believe is more difficult or they believe that is harder for us to be able to trace who it came from and where it’s going,“ special agent Volp said.
Thompson says the majority of these perpetrators are sitting in a foreign country.
“We see a lot in Nigeria, Ghana, India, and the grammar doesn’t quite match up with the English you and I use,” Thompson said.
Red flags include people you don’t know, someone overseas, social media accounts with no history and a lot of grammar mistakes.
Seniors are prime targets of romance scams. They become victims because of their vulnerability and loneliness, according to the FBI.
“And a lot of time their just looking for companionship or somebody that reaches out to them, and they think that it’s somebody who might be their friend,” special agent Volp said.
Senior Friendship Centers offers a Seniors versus Crime program to reduce victimization.
“You want to be a part of the community that you can turn to and say does this sound legitimate to you,” Senior Friendship Centers’ communication director, Crystal Rothhaar said. “Does this sound right? So, people who come here can get that information.”
The FBI says if you have fallen victim to these romance scams or if you know someone, you should come forward. To report a scam, you can go to ic3.gov.
