Scammers are creating fake dating sites to trick people into giving up their financial and personal information, costing victims $1.3 billion in losses in one year.

Valentine's Day romance scams in 2026 use AI personas and automated scripts to target divorced and widowed individuals through data broker profiles.

Romance scams are among the most emotionally damaging forms of cyber crime because they combine carefully manufactured intimacy with financial theft—the scammers go after your heart, and then your wallet.

Today, McAfee released its annual Valentine’s Day research, revealing how fake profiles, AI‑assisted chats, QR‑code‑based scams, and financial manipulation have become ingrained in modern online dating.

It’s a sad fact, but true — so many of today’s most common scams work by preying on and exploiting trust, and our most human emotions. And that’s even more true when it comes to online dating scams and romance scams, which take advantage of victims ...