Gifting and travel end strie in the hope that every year Valentine’s Week waits with Bracebree that his business will rise. But recent trends show that now not only the legal business but also the cyber-fraud, the thugs are also eagerly waiting for Valentine’s Week. It is named ‘Romance Scam’. Because millions of people log in to their favorite app or search platform in search of a partner for themselves.
Cyber ​​fraud fakes or sometimes targets individuals using the identity of another person. Recent reports show that such scam has increased amidst the glut of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. According to a 2024 report by Cyber ​​Security firm MCAFEE, 39% of Indians’ potential girlfriends came out scams, while 77% of Indians faced fake profiles on social media and dating apps, which were AI-birthted.
Another recent report shows that with 52% of people dating online, either money is cheated or pressurized to send gifts. Thugs are taking advantage of dating and social media apps and forcing the victims to send money and valuables by giving false confidence of committed relationship. People who are victims of such cyber fraud are emotionally and economically ruined.
AI tools working as ghee in fire
Scammers are using dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Ocupeed, as well as social media and messaging platforms, but recent trends show that AI Chatbot as well as using image generating services to target Victim Have started doing AI Tools have enabled cyber criminals to create even more reliable virtual profiles, making it difficult for the victims to distinguish into fake and real profiles.
One such example is that of a 53 -year -old French woman, who was defrauded by fraudsters in the name of Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. Using the AI-birthted photos and videos, the scammers assured the woman that she is in a romantic relationship with Brad Pitt. The fraudsters implicated the woman in the first love trap by creating a fake ID of Brad Pit. Then Brad Pitt cheated Rs 7.5 crore from him in the name of treating cancer.
In order to make the claims of fraudsters come true, he prepared such pictures of Brad Pitt on the hospital beds along with fake documents as well as AI, which would seem true. The woman also got caught in the life of those thugs. The incident was reported by the French media earlier this year. 26% of the people involved in the survey of McAfee conducted globally said that he was approached by AI Chatbots as real persons on dating apps or social media. The report said that 21% of the people involved in the survey admitted that they had to fall prey to financial friends on dating apps or social media and Victims suffered a loss of Rs 1.7 lakh on an average.
With the increasing number of dating apps and online meeting platforms, another pattern adopted by scammers is the creation of duplicate apps and websites. Cyber ​​criminals create fake apps or websites by mimicking the user interfaces of popular online platforms and fraud the financial fraud with people.
Ramans scam not limited to just tech
Ramans scams are not limited to the world alone. Some restaurants and bars reviews a special offline scam. Under this, thugs mostly target single mail, who desire to go on dating a girl in a bar or restaurant. One such incident was recorded in a pub in West Delhi. Victim gave a review of that pub on Google and told about the fraud with him.
Cyber ​​thugs had called Victim in the pub on the pretext of ‘call girls’ and cheated him by ordering dinner and drink. Victim said in the review that the thugs had printed a fake menu of that pub, in which the prices of things were increased. The price of a point beer was Rs 900-1000 and the hookah was Rs 4000. The thugs took money from Victim according to their menu and then ordered according to the menu of the pub. Victim also told that scammers are in the form of girls and waiters and after ordering, disappear and leaves you alone to pay heavy bills.
The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Center (I4C) has issued an advisory on the methods of romance scams used using dating apps in the past, where thugs make fake profiles to woo victims. They use ‘Love Bombing’ to express strong feelings before taking conversation to private channels. Once the victim rely, they ask for money, gifts, bank details or intimate photos and videos. Then they use them for blackmailing.
The agency warned the citizens, saying, ‘Citizens have suffered a large amount of financial loss due to such fraud. Such frauds target people who want mail or female partner. Recently, Meta notified before Valentine’s Day that it has removed the suspicious account from its platform, including the accounts that cloning to another account. The tech firm has also issued an alert to its users to caution while chatting with someone, whose account shows signs of suspicious activity.