The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reportedly generated a warning regarding the increase of romance scams in the San Francisco Bay Area, associated with crypto recently. 

Specifically, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, the FBI San Francisco field office reportedly issued a warning to the public, regarding the surge in romance scams, according to the complaints sent to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

A romance scam will reportedly operate by forming fake accounts and luring innocent investors, both male, and female, to send capital under the pretext of getting romantic. 

“Victims within the FBI San Francisco division’s territory lost more than $64 million to romance scams compared to just over $35 million in 2020.” The FBI further shared. 

Per insights exclusively from 2021, the intelligence and security service reportedly recorded 742 complaints within the Northern District of California, leaving the numbers 720 and 526 of 2020 and 2019 behind. 

Furthermore, the IC3 received over 23,000 complaints regarding confidence/romance scams two years ago, with reported losses of over $600 million.

“The FBI San Francisco has seen a rising trend in which romance scammers are persuading individuals to send money to invest or trade cryptocurrency.”

A standard romance scam will reportedly begin with acquiring the trust of the victims, who are then moved to fraudulent platforms citing investment opportunities. 

Despite the scammers letting their victims withdraw some funds from the initial trade in an attempt to form credibility, they will reportedly be coerced into putting in increased funds or cryptocurrencies.