By Elaine Viets
Romance scams are the cruelest fraud. Scammers steal your savings, self-respect, sanity, even your life. These scams are mainstay of Victorian novels – but now they have a modern twist, thanks to AI, dating apps, WhatsApp, and fake social media.
Consider Anne, a fifty-something French woman duped out of $855,000 by a Brad Pitt impersonator. Anne got a message from someone claiming to be Brad’s mother. Then “Brad” himself contacted her and they were online friends for more than a year. The fake Brad said he needed money for cancer treatment because his accounts were frozen, thanks to his split from Angelina Jolie. Anne also received photos of Brad in the hospital — AI-generated, of course.
The game was up when Anne saw real photos of Brad with his new love, Ines de Ramon. Ines, who belongs to a rich Swiss family, had more than enough bucks to take care of Brad.
What did Anne get for her kindness? When her story broke, she was ridiculed until she was hospitalized for mental health problems.
Stranger still was the senior citizen who fell in love with a fake Elon Musk. You read that right. The dark-haired, dashing Elon Musk.
The fake Elon sent her cheesy texts asking, “Hey baby, how are you? What are you doing tonight, baby?” The scammer used – what else? – AI for Elon’s voice, and stole $600,000. Why the richest man in the world needed what amounted to pocket change for him wasn’t clear, but he left that woman cold, stony broke.
Men are victims, too. A Las Vegas woman scammed at least four elderly men, drugged them, and helped herself to their savings and Social Security. At least one man disappeared.
Naturally, I had to add a romance scam to my new mystery, BEACH BLONDE BETRAYAL. In my second Florida Beach Mystery, someone is strangling young blonde women in the sun-splashed town of Peerless Point. One of the eccentric residents of Norah McCarthy’s apartment house, the Florodora, finds a body on the beach. The fear grows when a local restaurant owner is found stabbed on Norah’s doorstep. Norah has to unravel fatal secrets and deadly plots.
Including a romance scam that leads to murder.
Romance scammers have a real talent for figuring out who is vulnerable. These are ways to spot them.
Romance scammers can’t meet you in person. No matter how much Elon Musk hungers for your touch, he’ll never stop by your home. Ditto for love sick Brad Pitt. The scammer will have some reason they can’t visit. They work on an oil rig in the North Sea, a research station in Antarctica or they’re in the military and deployed to Iran. Some romance scammers travel constantly for business, but never to your hometown.
Romance scammers are extremely shy. They’ll never make a video call. If they send you a photo, they will be good-looking. Too good looking to be true. Check out their photo in one of the reverse image search engines, such as Tineye, and you’ll discover the photo belongs to a model or a free photo service.
Scammers are extremely attentive. Their emails overflow with love and flattery. They’ll confess, “I’ve never felt this way before” or “I can’t live without you.” Romance scammers will say you are kind, beautiful and most of all, generous.
Especially generous . . . Soon the scammers will have a little money problem. Nothing serious, mind you, but could they borrow 50 bucks until their paycheck arrives? And would you send it by Zelle? Smart scammers will pay back that money right away. A short time later, they’ll have a real emergency: their sweet old mother is dying. Or the scammer has been diagnosed with a terrible illness. They need your money. Of course, you send it. And keep sending it. Maybe you even sell your house.
If you question why they need so much money, romance scammers will ask: “Don’t you trust me? How can you say that when I love you so much?”
If these scammers don’t have a serious illness or a sick old mother, they often have beautiful dreams for a future together. They’ll send photos of a vacation house in Hawaii, Key Largo, or Costa Rica where the two of you can marry and live happily ever after. If you’ll just wire the six-figure down payment. And the money for airfare.
Some scammers want to make you rich. They have a hot investment opportunity. Usually in cryptocurrency. All you have to do is wire them the money.
Money is the key to romance scammers. In 2025 it’s estimated they’ve duped Americans out of $1.5 billion dollars. That’s billion with a B. As in be careful.
“With elegance and wit, Viets weaves each of these colorful subplots into an appealing tapestry. The result is a genial cozy that’s ideal for summer reading.” – Publishers Weekly on Beach Blonde Betrayal. Preorder your copy here: https://tinyurl.com/bdhx3k66