ATLANTA — As Valentine’s day approaches, romance scammers are looking to cash in on potential victims looking for connection.
And while these scams are nothing new, the FBI says since the pandemic hit, these scams have really tramped up online. In 2021, victims lost almost $1 billion to scammers, leaving them not only broken hearted, but broke.
Three years after her husband died, Sandie, a grandmother in Missouri, thought she met a German businessman who lived in Atlanta on an over 50s online dating site.
"I thought I met someone I can care about, who cares about me he was very attentive," Sandie explained.
But the Federal Bureau of Investigation said behind those messages was Ugo Caesar Anele, who was scamming a number of victims at the same time.
Over their 2-year relationship, Sandie ended up giving him $114,000.
"It just about devastated me, I almost lost my house over it because the bank said I had to pay it back," Sandie said.
11Alive's Tracy Amick-Peer spoke with an agent with the FBI who explained why romance scams are becoming more prevalent.
"[The FBI has seen] an explosion of romance scams since the onset of the pandemic,” Assistant Special Agent Christopher Macrae said.
With more people seeking romantic connections online, Macrae said the FBI is seeing an uptick in reported national losses.
Macrae said these scammers often work in groups overseas and target a certain type of person.
"The women are over 40 years old and they're either going to be divorced or widowed or have some sort of disability," he said.
The federal agent said romance scams are not just happening across the nation, but in the Peach State as well. 500 reported victims were from Georgia, Macrae said.
As romance scams become more prevalent, the FBI hopes to help residents identify the red flags of possible romance scams. Macrae said residents should be wary if the the individual:
- Claims to be overseas or in austere conditions
- Can only communicate via apps or texts
- Doesn't want to video chat
- Tries to move the conversation to email or other encrypted forms of social media
- Always has a financial problem, asks for money
Anele was caught and sentenced to 3 years in prison. But on his way to report to prison he fled the country and is still on the run.
"In this case we have a fugitive and he's overseas and he's certainly not paying his victims restitution," Special Agent Steve Evans said.
The federal agent also urges residents to come forward, despite feelings of embarrassment.
Evans has this advice for anyone dating or communicating with people online:
"If you haven't met this person-do not send this person money, and if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."
To report a possible romance scam, residents can submit a tip to the Internet Crime Complaint Center by clicking the link here.