"It should never have happened to me," this American, former soldier, told AFP from her home in Florida, like many other victims of scams carried out by a fake partner met online.

These romance scams, stemming from dating apps, have multiplied during the Covid-19 pandemic, when repeated confinements have led to the search for affection by interposed screen.

A record amount of $547 million was plundered in 2021 in this type of case, estimated the US competition authority (FTC).

An increase of nearly 80% in one year.

Losses of approximately $1.3 billion have been reported in the United States over the past five years, making it the largest category of scams recorded by the US agency.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg, notes the FTC, because the vast majority of abuses go unreported.

The recent explosion in numbers can be explained by “isolation, loneliness and the use of the internet as an almost unique way of communicating” during the pandemic, estimates Tim McGuinness, founder of the dedicated association Scars.

New tricks thanks to the Covid

A sudden positive Covid test, new travel restrictions that came at the right time... the constant uncertainty of the past two years has provided scammers with ready-made excuses to cancel the long-awaited meeting at the last moment, notes the FTC.

A man thus told the association “Silent Victim No More” that the health restrictions had given his correspondent a ready-made reason to ask him a rabbit.

"The Covid has benefited scammers", regrets this man who paid some 400,000 dollars.

Attention around this type of fraud is growing, however, notably through self-help groups or recently with the documentary "The Tinder Scammer" on Netflix.

Once Debby Montgomery Johnson, in her 60s, realized she had lost more than a million dollars, she decided to tell the story of how she had been taken in by the man she had felt with, for two years, very close.

She wrote a book and joined the team of the Scars association, in contact with some seven million victims since 2015.

"I was looking for a confidant," she explains, having dove into dating sites after her husband's death.

It wasn't like her to give money the way she did, she continues, but "he really thrilled me."

"It's manipulation at an expert level," said Scars' Tim McGuinness, a victim himself.

The exchanges "take place like a normal conversation, but they will use very specific manipulation techniques to initiate a grip".

The scammers, often based in West Africa, assume false identities who live and work abroad, sometimes soldiers, thus opening the way, later, to alibis.

After a long-distance romance, comes the request to transfer money for plane tickets, visas, medical expenses or other emergencies, always with the promise of a refund once met.

Little risk, lots of profit: With such advantages, scammers repeat this scenario not only on dating apps, but also on Instagram, or even online games.

"The scammers are present in any space where you can start a conversation with someone," said Tim McGuinness.

"No one was talking about it"

And young people are not spared: according to the FTC, the number of Americans aged 18 to 29 affected has increased more than tenfold between 2017 and 2021.

The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, also facilitates these deceptions through the opacity of the cash transfers they enable.

According to Tim McGuinness, young people are having "more often and for smaller amounts", while older people lose larger sums, but less often.

The victims, faced with the fear of the judgment of others, very often keep to themselves a story of which they are ashamed.

Debby Montgomery Johnson has heard many stories similar to hers over the years, "but no one was talking about it".

She says today that she wants to echo it around her, "to be the voice of the one who survived."

© 2022 AFP