The Financial Ombudsman Service received more than 500 complaints between January 2025 and March 2026 from people who were victims of romance scams.
Romance scams are where fraudsters convince often vulnerable people to send money to them, by gaining their trust and convincing them that they are in a relationship.
The Fos reviewed 14,000 scam complaints and found that more than 500 related to romance scams.
The Fos said generally, cases involve scammers seducing victims on social media and gaming apps and enticing them towards more private messaging apps.
The scammers will sometimes search for profiles of widowed people or divorcees.
They manipulate consumers, preying on their emotions and often request money for time sensitive and deeply personal things such as medical care or emergency travel, the Fos explained.
While romance scams are not the most common kind of scam the dispute resolution service sees, they can have a huge emotional and financial impact on a person.
Patrick Hurley, ombudsman director at the Fos, said: “Being the victim of a fraud or scam can be deeply distressing, and sadly for many people the financial implications can be life changing.
“Romance scams particularly can leave an emotional scar and the impact on victims is often significant.
“Our service offers free, fair and final answers to your financial complaints. So, if you’re unhappy with how your financial provider has handled your issue, you can bring a complaint to us.”
In one complaint the Fos dealt with, a woman met someone on a well-known social media platform who pretended to have a romantic interest in her.
The woman had faced difficulties in her personal life and the scammer zeroed in on her circumstances and over time convinced her to send £70,000.
He claimed he wanted to have a life with her but needed money to start his business in the UK first.
In another complaint that came to the Fos, a recently divorced man met a woman on a dating app who manipulated him into investing significant sums of money in cryptocurrency.
The man transferred money to the woman’s account, later revealed to be a scammer, totalling nearly £29,000.
He even took out loans to make the payments.
In both cases, the Fos ordered the banks to refund some or all of the lost money, highlighting how the bank had failed to intervene appropriately.
Last year, the FCA published its multi-firm review into romance scams and found while there were some examples of good practice, there were instances of firms missing opportunities to identify suspicious transactions.
The Fos said scammers can be incredibly sophisticated, making it difficult for even the most cautious individuals to recognise the deception.
The rise of AI and the increased popularity of social media platforms and dating apps has made it difficult to differentiate fact from fiction.
sonia.rach@ft.com
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