By Husna Khan Hashi :
In today’s digital age, where forming relationships and communicating online has become part of everyday life, many people turn to dating sites and social media in search of love, friendship, or companionship.
Yet beneath the glow of digital connection, romance scams have emerged as a serious and growing threat. While these platforms bring people closer, they also provide fertile ground for fraudsters who exploit emotional vulnerability to commit financial and psychological deception.
A romance scam is a form of fraud in which scammers pretend to be loving partners in order to extract money or personal information. They present themselves as caring, trustworthy, and emotionally available.
Through gentle conversation, promises of love, and dreams of a shared future, they weave a web of affection and trust. Gradually, this illusion deepens into love bombing, a flood of messages, compliments, and affection meant to capture the victim emotionally.
Once trust is secured, the scam unfolds: requests for money emerge, often framed as emergencies, illness, accidents, or sudden travel. They promise repayment or a meeting soon, but that day never comes.
Who is most at risk?
The key factor that scammers exploit is emotional vulnerability. However, some groups tend to face greater risk:
• Older individuals unfamiliar with technology
• Recently divorced or widowed people
• Those with chronic illnesses or disabilities
• People with limited local dating options
Many assume that scam victims are naïve or careless. In truth, they are often educated, self-aware, and accomplished individuals whose only weakness was their willingness to believe in love.
In Bangladesh too, this trend is slowly rising. Many have lost large sums of money after falling for the lure of foreign “lovers” on social media. News stories often reveal how victims have lost everything to such deceitful relationships.
The financial losses from romance scams are staggering. In 2023 alone, victims in the United States lost over 1.3 billion dollars. Yet the emotional cost is even greater: loss of self-esteem, deep sadness, and fear of future relationships.
These scams inflict not only financial harm but also emotional and social wounds. Victims lose confidence, withdraw from relationships, and often struggle with depression.
Scammers are not easy to identify. They are skilled at hiding their real identities and use emotionally manipulative language to gain control over their victims. They invest time and patience to build credibility, acting convincingly as genuine partners.
How to protect yourself Awareness is the first shield. Users must learn to recognize the signs of deception:
• Be cautious if someone declares love too quickly
• Treat repeated requests for money as a red flag
• Be suspicious if they try to move the conversation off-platform
• Cross-check their backstory and use reverse image searches
• Share your doubts with family or friends, scammers thrive in isolation
Combating romance scams requires collective effort. User awareness is vital, but digital platforms also have responsibilities.
Dating sites and social media companies should improve their detection of fake profiles and make reporting easier. Law enforcement and government agencies must also act more decisively, through cybercrime units, legal enforcement, and international collaboration, to bring these scammers to justice.
It is equally important for platforms to strengthen identity verification systems and ensure user safety. On a personal level, everyone should guard their private information and think rationally before forming emotional attachments online. Decisions made from logic rather than loneliness offer stronger protection.
Families and friends, too, play a crucial role. When someone gets emotionally entangled online, loved ones should respond with empathy and guidance, not judgment.
In the end, romance scams represent one of the darker sides of modern technology, damaging not just individuals but entire communities.
Only through awareness, digital security, law enforcement, and emotional support can we confront this threat. Together, we can protect ourselves and others from falling into this digital trap.
Ultimately, a romance scam is a dangerous fusion of technology, emotion, and crime. Online love may open the door to beautiful possibilities, but it can also lead to devastating peril. To stay safe, we must balance emotion with awareness, affection with discernment, and trust with vigilance.
Behind every scam stands a deceiver; behind every victim, a real human being. This is not only a technological battle, it is a struggle for awareness, empathy, and humanity itself.
If you become a victim of an online romance scam, the most important step is to report it immediately. Victims can contact the Cyber Crime Investigation Division or file a complaint online.
(The writer is a Bangladeshi-born and a civil servant of the UK)
