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In January 2025 the news of a 53 -year -old French woman who, convinced that she had a relationship with Brad Pitt, suffered one fraud for an amount of about 830 thousand euros lost. But how was it possible? Thanks to the so -called romance scama type of scam that does not leverage so much on the improper use of technology as on feelings and on the fragility of those who suffer it. This scam is in fact based on long and intense digital relationships Woven by the scammers with the victim, who fond of a non -existing person, is willing to give him money in case of need. All this occurs through false profiles created by scammers on social networks or dating apps, which also thanks to artificial intelligence manage to create very credible profiles. An example of this type of scam can also be that of the messages of the fake children who declare that they have broken the phone.
Let’s see in this article How this type of scam workshow it is possible to recognize them and what are the Fundamental advice to follow to not remain a victim of it.
What are and how romantic scams work that use feelings to deceive the victims
The romance scam, in Italian “romantic scams”, they are a particular type of scam that is based only on a fake sentimental relationship established by scammers with the victim. It is an entirely digital relationship established through social network or dating app, in which fake lover and victim never come to meet due to specific excuses that are used to avoid contact.

The scam is simple: criminals create a false profile on a specific social or on a dating app built ad hoc, sewn on the personality of the victim. It is in fact a non -random scam, but targeted: they choose a person of the right age, they look where they live, they study the interests, the passions, in short .. All possible information that they find. Once the victim’s profile is studied, the profile of a man or woman is built with the same interests and with a normal life, so that it is likely, With lots of photos and posts that document the facts that are told by the scammers to the victim. The photos used are usually stolen from the internet or created with artificial intelligence and serve to make the life of the fictitious character created by the scammers credible.
Once the contact has been established, the scammers use a series of communicative tricks to ensure that the victim binds deeply to the fake lover. Is the so -called social engineering.
Relationship of dependence and extortion of money: what is social engineering and what are its consequences
The scammers begin dense correspondence with the victim based right on common things and try to establish a relationship of dependence with extreme speed. For this they choose victims that, on paper, seem fragile people or sun, And they establish a deep intimate relationship, with strong words of love, promises of life projects together. Techniques like these have precise functioning, exploit the victim’s trust, its vulnerabilities and manipulate it, leveraging on its weak points.
This dense correspondence it can go on for months, making the bond grow in a completely way digital. In fact, the scammers find excuses for which they cannot see the victim of person, and they are the same apologies that they will then use to ask for money. But in what sense? We use an example.
The fake lover he pretends to be sickso he cannot move at home and therefore cannot meet the victim. And asks money precisely for this, for the continuous medical expenses. This is what happened in the case of the fake Brad Pitt: he pretended sick and asked for money to cure himself, saying he had the accounts blocked by his divorce.

Sometimes they use economic problems or cheap advice: the scammer pretends to have a company that is going badly and asks the victim for help, or advises the victim some investments to be made, especially in Cryptovalute. Investments that, of course, will end up in its pockets. Then, the most banal: they ask for money to see the victim, for Buy flights.
In the United States there are also extreme cases, in which the victims are used as a pawns for the money laundering, the so -called Money Muling, In which the victim, for love or by blackmail, helps criminals to move “dirty” money from one account to another.
The data of Italy and the United States on losses due to romantic scams
In Italy in 2021 (Source: postal police, links in the sources) have been removed 4.5 million euros to the victims. In United States (Source: FTC – Federal Trade Commission) are 547 million stolen dollars50% more than the previous year, and the most affected age groups are the over 55, especially women, but the data are not comforting even between 25 and 50 years. THE numbers I am increased in recent years because we use social networks more and more to relate to others, and the pandemic He played a great role in this.

And to create a false profile, unfortunately, it is not at all complicated, a few clicks are enough and the right photos. These photos – as we said before – can be taken from the web, therefore stolen from other profiles of people who really exist, or created with artificial intelligence.
So, how to recognize them?
How to recognize romantic scams: when a profile has to suspect us
The first thing to do is to use Google Lens: by inserting the profile image of our suspicion in the search engine, you can see in which Other web pages appears The same photo. In this way we can check if it is associated with another profile, with another name, or is taken by some newspaper.
It may happen instead that they are created with theartificial intelligenceusing the deepfake. This is the case of the fake Brad Pitt.

What is important to know is that there are gods particular that help us to understand When an image is artificial: hands often have a fingers wrong, the skin it is very clear and without imperfections and the same goes for i hair, which hardly have natural reflections. It is also important to pay attention to the background: often the Fa architectural errors And if there is an inscription, i character They are almost always wrong.
It is true, however, that the deepfakes are increasingly likely, but fortunately there are software that allow you to analyze the photos to discover fakes. And therefore, how we protect ourselves From these scams?
How to defend yourself from romance scam: the advice
When we know someone new online and establish ourselves a completely digital relationship, we must pay attention to different details who have to suspect us:
- The first is definitely the reluctance to meet, Whether for an illness or for economic or logistical problems and the fact that the person avoids visual contacts, such as video calls
- They must then suspect the Too many coincidences on the common passions, especially if they are interests that we have shared online in the photos or on our profile
- Another clue is when they come to us declared very strong love feelings And life projects are made together in a short time; I know it’s nice to think about love at first sight, but this is precisely one of the social engineering strategies used by scammers
- Finally, be wary of whom There asks for money, Always, and above all if we don’t know him live.

So the three fundamental tips are
- Never send money To those who do not know in person
- try share less information Personal possible on the web
- and above all talk to friends and relatives Of this type of relationship: when we are involved, we become not very rational, while those who are not involved helps us understand if there is something wrong.