The National Anti-Scam Centre has commenced its third fusion cell – focusing on romance scams – bringing together representatives from dating and social media platforms, law enforcement, banks, victim support services, cryptocurrency exchanges, and academic experts. The goal is to disrupt criminal groups seeking to groom Australians through online relationship scams and steal their money.
Romance scams cause some of the highest financial losses of all scam types, as well as deep emotional harm that can have lasting impacts. In 2024, Scamwatch received reports showing Australians lost $23.6 million to romance scams, with an average individual loss of $24,216.
These scams disproportionately affect people aged 35 and over, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Australians living with a disability, Indigenous communities, and others who are widowed, divorced, or actively seeking relationships.
Between January 2024 and May 2025, men were more likely to report romance scams; however, women reported higher financial losses – $20.1 million compared to $13.3 million for men. On average, women lost more per scam – $36,091 compared to $17,089 for men. People aged 65 and over had the highest total losses at $11.7 million.
“There is an element of betrayal in romance scams that is incredibly cruel and can leave people facing both financial and devastating personal impacts,” ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe said.
“Our job is to better understand how these scams work and break that cycle before more harm is done. The fusion cell allows us to act quickly and collaboratively across industries to disrupt these callous and calculated scams.”
The Romance Scam Fusion Cell will focus on criminals targeting people using dating platforms, social media, and encrypted messaging apps. Scammers often invest weeks or months gaining a person’s trust, creating a strong emotional connection before making requests for money or other forms of assistance. They may engage in video or phone calls and make false promises to meet in person. Scammers often threaten to expose private information if their demands are not met. These manipulation tactics are designed to maintain control and exploit trust.
A screenshot of messages received from a scammer.
Two common scam methods have been identified. The first, known as romance baiting, typically involves grooming a romantic interest to take up fake investment opportunities, often involving cryptocurrency. The second, the ‘long-term romance scam’, sees the scammer cultivate an emotional connection over an extended period of time, even months or years. These criminals construct elaborate stories to extract money or to coerce people into unknowingly becoming money mules.
A screenshot of messages from another scammer, pressuring for money.
“There may not always be clear warning signs of romance scams; however, the relationship will generally involve excessive messaging or ‘love bombing’, efforts to move the conversation off dating and social media platforms onto encrypted apps, requests for money, or investment advice,” Ms Lowe said.
“Scammers may even pretend to be public figures or claim they are in remote locations to create excuses for not meeting in person or through video chat. Patterns we see with romance scams are secrecy, constant excuses, or sudden money requests, so any of these signs in an online romance should put people on alert.”
“Scammers thrive in silence, so let your report be the noise that helps stop them. By reporting a scam to us, you help us build our intelligence, and it could be vital information for us in aiding law enforcement to uncover a scam network,” Ms Lowe said.
The Romance Scam Fusion Cell will focus on two major workstreams; firstly, to develop disruption methods and processes for victim identification and secondly, to design and trial a contact model for romance scam victims to help disengage victims from the scam.
Fusion cells are time-limited taskforces designed to bring together expertise from government and the private sector to take action to address specific, urgent scam issues. The Romance Scam Fusion Cell is the third fusion cell coordinated by the National Anti-Scam Centre. The first fusion cell focused on combatting investment scams. The second fusion cell addressed job and employment scams, which led to the removal of more than 29,000 scam social media accounts and 1,850 fake job ads between September 2024 and March 2025.
For further details about fusion cells, please see here.
The National Anti-Scam Centre continues to work with partners across sectors to analyse emerging threats, raise awareness, and implement targeted interventions that disrupt scams before they reach consumers.
Romance scams
- The relationship moves quickly, with lots of messaging or calling (‘love bombing’) and early declarations of strong feelings.
- Scammers try to move conversations off dating or social media platforms onto free messaging apps like WhatsApp, WeChat, Telegram, or Line (which makes them harder to trace).
- After building trust, they ask you to invest money, often in cryptocurrency, or claim emergencies needing urgent financial help.
- They encourage secrecy, isolation from friends and family, and make excuses to avoid meeting in person, often saying they’re overseas or have tech issues. Common stories include working on an oil rig, being deployed in the military, or running a lucrative overseas business.
- They may use AI to video call you, appearing to be someone they are not.
- Never send money, personal details, bank or identity documents to someone you haven’t met in person. Avoid transferring money on their behalf to prevent involvement in crimes like money laundering.
- Take your time getting to know someone online, ask questions, and look out for inconsistencies. Red flags can be hard to spot. Talk to your family or friends and ask them whether it seems unusual. Search their name with ‘scam’ online and use reverse image searches to verify photos.
- Never send intimate photos or videos to people you don’t know – they can be used to blackmail you.
- Be cautious sharing personal information online, and don’t keep online relationships secret – talk to someone you trust who can help spot warning signs
How to spot and avoid scams
STOP – Don’t give money or personal information to anyone you’ve only met online. Scammers will create a sense of urgency. Don’t rush to act. Say ‘no’, block, and delete.
CHECK – Ask yourself could the relationship be fake? Relationship scammers convince you to trust them. Speak to friends and family about the warning signs.
PROTECT – Act quickly if something feels wrong. Contact your bank immediately if you lose money. If you have provided personal information, call IDCARE on 1800 595 160. The more we talk the less power they have. Report scams to the National Anti-Scam Centre’s Scamwatch service at scamwatch.gov.au when you see them. If you’re contacted by scammer on a dating or messaging platform, please also report the scam in the app.