'Lonely Widow' fake dating profile exposes how quickly romance scammers strike

Families are being warned about the signs that an older relative is being targeted by romance scammers, after a fake dating profile experiment attracted suspicious behaviour within hours of being posted online. Figures from City of London Police show that 10,784 reports of romance fraud were made in 202,5 with victims losing more than £102 million, or on average £9,500.

To find out the ease with which the criminals are operating, a private investigation firm set up a fake dating profile for "Margaret", a 72-year-old widow, who was described as retired, lonely, living alone and looking for companionship after the passing of her husband. The profile was created across several well-known dating platforms to see how quickly vulnerable people are targeted online.

The firm did not message anyone first, and where messages appeared genuine, they were ended without further engagement.

The fictional profile was designed to include vulnerability markers often seen in romance scam cases, and it wasn't long until the profile started to receive messages from accounts that raised red flags.

Over 30 days, the fictional profile received 124 messages, with 29 of these messages showing classic scam behaviour.

That means almost one in four messages sent to the fictional widow showed common romance scam warning signs.

The first suspicious messages arrived within 48 hours of the profiles going live, while the experiment recorded an average of almost one suspected scam-style message per day.

Of those suspicious messages, eight also had financial undertones, with senders mentioning crypto, investing, gift cards, banking issues or a family emergency.

The reasera ch was carried out by private investigators Adley Barton.

A spokesperson for the firm said: "This was only a small experiment, but it shows how quickly vulnerable people can be targeted online."

"When you know what to look out for, it's easy to spot, but for people who have never experienced this before, it's easy to fall into the trap. First of all, it's not always about money straight away. What tends to happen is that the scammers try to take the conversation away from the dating app to avoid safety filters on the dating platforms. From here, the pressure will build until eventually the person you thought you knew has taken thousands from you."

Signs of a romance scam

A romance scam often starts with a vulnerable person being showered with attention. Then the person is pushed to move to talking on apps like WhatsApp or Telegram, as there are no filters here.

When talking with these scammers, a person may talk to them for a few days or even weeks, a relationship is built, and then the pressure becomes to build.

The pressure may come in the form of a crisis, maybe they are having money worries, or someone in their family, usually a child or grandchild, that they have mentioned suddenly becomes ill, and they need money to pay for the treatment.

Other red flags to look out for include the person refusing to answer calls, sending generic messages daily, mentioning crypto or investment opportunities, and using stolen or AI images.

If you suspect an elderly person in your family is being targeted, you need to be careful with how you approach it. If you go in and accuse them of being scammed, then they may shut down and defend the person, or even start to hide things from you.

If you notice that a vulnerable person in your family is being secretive with their phone or if they are receiving messages at the wrong time, then it's something that you shouldn't ignore.