SYDNEY, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has warned people to be alert to dating and romance scams as the Valentine's Day is approaching.
According to its new monitoring data released on Sunday, more than 40 million Australian dollars (about 27.6 million U.S. dollars) were lost to romance scams in 2022.
Meanwhile, there were 3,698 reports of romance scams made to the ACCC's Scamwatch in 2022, up 8 percent compared to the previous year.
Nearly half of these reports involved scammers with fake profiles contacting their victims via mobile apps and social networking platforms.
The consumer watchdog noted that those aged 65 and over incurred the highest losses to romance scams, totalling more than 12.9 million Australian dollars (about 8.9 million U.S. dollars).
"Romance scammers will pull on their victim's heartstrings to get what they want. We know of an Australian woman who lost more than 250,000 Australian dollars after an online relationship with a man who claimed to be an overseas doctor needing money for medical equipment," said ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe.
Lowe urged people not to share personal photos or videos as these can be used by scammers to blackmail their victims and tell them to contact their bank immediately if they have lost money.
Earlier, a report from the National Australia Bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the country, indicated that its insights ahead of Valentine's Day have seen a 17-percent increase in the number of romance scams over the past year.
Another banking company Westpac also raised the alarm that a rising number of Australians are being tricked into sending money to fake admirers, as it latest scam report showed that the cost of romance scams ticked up 26 percent in 2022 and have quadrupled since 2020.
"Scammers are using a new technique called 'romance baiting' to meet victims through online dating apps to develop a relationship before luring them into a fake investment opportunity," said Westpac Head of Fraud Ben Young.
"These scams are challenging because they will groom victims over a number of weeks or months to obtain information and build trust. As people become emotionally invested, the warning signs become more difficult to detect," Young added. ■