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Romance Scams: The Stories Scammers Tell, the Payment Requests, and How to Check a Profile

By Web Asset House Studio ·

Note: Some future links on this site may be affiliate links. We never claim hands-on testing; guides are researched from the public sources listed in each article.

How we wrote this: A summary of the FTC's "What To Know About Romance Scams" and "What To Know About Cryptocurrency and Scams" pages and the FBI IC3 guidance for cryptocurrency scam victims (all linked below), checked October 29, 2026.

Romance scams don't look like scams at first. They look like a conversation with someone kind and attentive, sometimes for weeks. The FTC's description of how they unfold is worth reading before you need it, or before a friend or parent does.

How a romance scam typically goes

Based on the FTC's account:

  1. The contact. You meet someone on a dating site or app, or they reach out on a social network such as Instagram or Facebook. The profile is fake.
  2. Moving off the platform. Soon they want to email, call or message you somewhere else.
  3. Building trust fast. They talk often, sometimes several times a day, and say it's true love.
  4. The distance. They live far away, maybe for work or because they're in the military.
  5. The request. Once trust is built, they need money for something urgent.

The stories they tell

The FTC says romance scammers adjust their story to whatever they think will work. Common versions:

How they ask to be paid

The FTC notes that scammers want money quickly and in ways that are hard to get back. Romance scammers typically ask you to wire money through a company like Western Union or MoneyGram, buy gift cards and send the PIN codes, or send cryptocurrency.

The urgency is part of the pressure. The FTC's point is simple: the more they push you to pay now, the more likely it's a scam.

The FTC's one rule

Never send money or gifts to a sweetheart you haven't met in person.

The FTC's crypto guidance adds a second rule that covers the most costly version: never mix online dating and investment advice. If someone you met on a dating site or app wants to show you how to invest in crypto, or asks you to send them crypto, the FTC says that's a scam. Our investment and crypto scams guide explains how the fake "investment" side works.

Two checks you can run

The FTC suggests:

And one more that's harder: talk to someone you trust. The FTC asks whether friends or family have said they're worried about your new love interest. Scammers often discourage that conversation.

If you suspect a romance scam

According to the FTC:

  1. Stop communicating with the person immediately.
  2. If you've paid by gift card, wire transfer, credit or debit card, or cryptocurrency, contact the company or your bank right away, tell them you paid a scammer, and ask for a refund. Our step-by-step guide for after you've paid a scammer covers each payment method.
  3. Report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and notify the dating site or social network where you met.
  4. If cryptocurrency was involved, the FBI asks victims to report at ic3.gov with transaction details, and warns that people offering to "recover" lost funds may be scammers too.

Talking with a family member

The person involved may not want to hear that their partner isn't real. Leading with the FTC's checks ("let's do a reverse image search together") can be easier than an argument. Our guides on gift card scams and government impersonation scams describe other common payment tricks.

Quick checklist

Sources

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