Love will cost ya: Scammers make bank from online dating

We know people who run Internet scams are heartless, but this really drives the point home. Last year, the worst victims of fraud online were people looking for love — specifically lonely older people. See? Heartless.

The FBI just released its annual report on online fraud, and overall, Americans were scammed out of more than $800 million last year.

People looking for romance make up around 11% of that, at $86.7 million. Four out of five of people who fell for romance cons are over 40 — and almost 70% were women.

The most common scam is someone pretending to be a member of the military who starts an online relationship, then starts asking for money.

Auto fraud was the second-biggest online scam last year. People lost $56 million to people selling cars they didn’t have.

The average person who falls for fraud online loses $2,971.



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