Screen & Scams
How much money is lost to romance scams every day?
In 2016 romance scams cost US victims $76 million. In 2025 it was $1.48 billion, roughly 19 times as much. Most victims never report, so the real toll is higher: globally, losses are estimated at close to $5.9 billion a year. The average loss per person in 2025 was $2,020, but that figure hides an extreme spread: adults over 70 lose far more, often everything they had saved. Cryptocurrency made it worse. Once transferred, the money is gone.
Roughly $188 in estimated global losses every second. (estimated, same model as the counter)
Source: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network 2025; FBI IC3 Annual Report 2025.
Last checked: 18 October 2026
What this means for you
The FTC's per-person figure for 2025 is $2,020 (FTC), but that figure hides a wide spread. In the FTC's 2021 age tables, adults over 70 already showed the highest median losses, at $9,000, often after depleting retirement savings or taking out loans before they understood what was happening.
The financial loss is rarely the most damaging part. Victims describe months of emotional investment in a relationship they believed was real, which is why the betrayal sits closer to grief than to typical fraud. Studies find that victims are twice as likely to develop depression or PTSD compared to victims of property crime.
Any request for money from someone you have only met online, for any reason, is the defining red flag. Romance scammers are trained to make those requests feel natural and urgent, which is exactly why they work.
The financial toll: what the data shows
FTC's full-year 2025 data: $1.48 billion in US romance scam losses (+22% year-on-year), a $2,020 per-person figure reported by the FTC
Federal Trade CommissionFBI IC3's narrower confidence/romance complaint category recorded $929.3 million in US losses for 2025 (+38% year-on-year), a different slice of the same trend since IC3 counts direct complaints rather than the FTC's broader network of consumer reports
FBI / IC3US romance scam losses grew from $76M (2016) to $1.3 billion (2022), a 17× increase in 6 years
Federal Trade CommissionCryptocurrency overtook gift cards as the most common romance scam payment in 2021
Federal Trade CommissionMedian romance scam loss: $4,400 in 2022 (FTC); up from $2,400 in 2021
Federal Trade Commission46% of romance scam victims first contact their "romance" on Facebook or Instagram (FTC 2023)
Federal Trade CommissionPig-butchering crypto investment scams cost US victims $5.8 billion in 2024 alone (FBI IC3)
FBI / IC3Romance scam losses vs. dating scam victims, today
Every victim who falls for romance fraud carries both a financial loss and an emotional one. The FTC's per-person figure for 2025 is $2,020; in the worst cases, the figure is the victim's entire life savings.
The economics of romance fraud: from fake profiles to stolen savings
The fastest-growing fraud category
US romance scam losses grew 17× in six years: from $76 million (2016) to $1.3 billion (2022), outpacing every other fraud category the FTC tracked. Three things drove it: online dating platforms created an effectively unlimited victim pool, cryptocurrency made transfers irreversible, and fraud industrialised. In Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines, documented scam compounds employ thousands of workers, some of them trafficked, running romance fraud operations against targets in North America, Europe, and East Asia around the clock.
Global dimensions
The $1.48 billion FTC figure covers only reported US losses. The UK, Australia, and Canada all publish separate romance fraud data showing the same growth curve. Interpol and the US State Department have documented the compound operations specifically: hundreds of workers, some trafficked, running scripts against target lists in multiple languages simultaneously. The operations are coordinated, resourced, and designed to scale.
How romance scam losses escalated
- 2016FTC begins systematic romance scam tracking; $76M in reported US losses
- 2019$201M US losses
- 2021$547M US losses (FTC record); crypto payments grow 25× from 2019; pig-butchering spreads globally
- 2022$1.3B US romance scam losses (FTC); 17× growth from 2016 in 6 years
- 2024FBI IC3: $5.8B in US cryptocurrency investment fraud losses, a category separate from the $672M in confidence/romance losses
- 2025FTC confirms $1.48 billion in full-year US losses (+22%), $2,020 per person (FTC); FBI IC3's narrower complaint category logs $929.3 million (+38%)
Romance scam loss trends: 2016-2025
Romance scam losses grew 17× from $76 million in 2016 to $1.3 billion in 2022. The shift to cryptocurrency payments made losses irreversible and dramatically increased per-victim amounts.
| Year | Rate | Est. per day | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | $10/sec | $821K | Social media romance scams grow |
| 2020 | $38/sec | $3.3M | COVID drives online-only relationships; crypto begins |
| 2022 | $165/sec | $14.3M | Pig-butchering mainstream; crypto standard |
| 2024 | $154/sec | $13.3M | Pig-butchering dominates; scam compounds industrialised |
| 2025 | $188/sec | $16.2M | Full-year FTC total confirms growth, though below the earlier partial-year extrapolation |
| 2027 (forecast) | $301/sec | $26.0M | AI-generated personas and voice cloning make scams harder to detect |
Research on financial harm from romance fraud
| Year | Finding | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | FTC: ~$76 million in US romance scam losses (baseline year); baseline for FTC tracking | 76.0M USD losses (US, FTC) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2019 | FTC: ~$201 million in US romance scam losses | 203.0M USD losses (US, FTC) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2020 | FTC: $304 million; fourfold increase since 2016 | 304.0M USD losses (US, FTC) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2021 | FTC: $547 million, record; crypto payments ×5 over 2020 | 547.0M USD losses (US, FTC) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2022 | FTC: $1.3 billion reported by ~70,000 people; median loss $4,400; #1 fraud category by loss | 1.3B USD losses (US, FTC) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2024 | FBI IC3 2024: $672M in romance/confidence fraud losses (US); crypto investment fraud (pig-butchering, often initiated via dating apps) added $5.8B in a separate IC3 category | 672.0M USD losses (US, FBI IC3 2024) | FBI / IC3 |
| 2025 | FTC full-year 2025 (published May 2026): $1.48 billion in US romance scam losses (+22% vs 2024), a $2,020 per-person figure reported by the FTC | 1.5B USD losses (US, FTC, full-year 2025) | Federal Trade Commission |
| 2025 | FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report: $929,287,469 in confidence/romance complaint losses (+38% vs $672,009,052 in 2024), a narrower complaint category than the FTC's broader consumer-report network | 929.3M USD losses (US, FBI IC3, confidence/romance category, 2025) | FBI / IC3 |
Frequently asked questions
- How much money is lost to romance scams per year?
- FTC reported US losses: $1.3 billion in 2022, ~$1.21 billion in 2024 (implied by the 22% rise to $1.48 billion), and $1.48 billion in full-year 2025 (+22%, published May 2026). Globally, accounting for other countries and unreported cases, total losses are estimated at roughly $5.9 billion annually.
- How has cryptocurrency changed romance scams?
- Cryptocurrency payment requests in romance scams grew 25× from 2019 to 2021 (FTC). By 2022, cryptocurrency was the most common payment method requested by romance scammers. Crypto transfers are irreversible, anonymous, and international, making recovery virtually impossible and law enforcement extremely difficult.
- What is the median loss per victim?
- The FTC reported a median individual loss of $4,400 in 2022. By Q3 2025, the median had declined to $2,218 per victim, likely reflecting more younger and lower-income victims filing reports as awareness grew. The FTC's full-year 2025 figure comes with a $2,020 per-person figure from the FTC. Pig-butchering victims who invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency platforms are the exception, often losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes their entire life savings.
Cite this rate
AnythingCounter derived rate, last checked October 2026: about $188 per second (about $16.2 million per day).
Method: Based on Federal Trade Commission 2025; FBI / IC3 2025, converted to a per-second rate (daily total ÷ 86,400).
Suggested citation: AnythingCounter, "Romance scam money stolen," October 2026, https://anythingcounter.com/romance-scam-money-lost-per-day
Primary source: Federal Trade Commission; FBI / IC3.
How this number is calculated, and how much to trust it
The live counter uses the 2025 observed rate of ~$188/sec, derived from the FTC's full-year 2025 figure ($1.48 billion in reported US losses, +22% year-on-year, published May 2026). Annualizing: $1.48B US FTC × ~4 global multiplier for other countries and underreporting → ~$5.92B global annually ÷ 31,536,000 seconds ≈ $188/sec. The confirmed full-year total lands below the ~$1.54B that the earlier Jan-Sep partial-year figure implied when annualized. FBI IC3's 2025 Annual Report counted $929.3 million in its narrower confidence/romance complaint category (+38% year-on-year), a useful cross-check on direction rather than a direct substitute, since it captures a smaller, differently defined slice of reports. Global estimates carry significant uncertainty due to widespread underreporting.
The primary source is the FTC's Consumer Sentinel romance scam alert (May 2026), covering full-year 2025 US losses. FTC Consumer Sentinel aggregates reports from over 35 law enforcement partners, which gives it broader coverage than the FBI IC3 figure. For the cryptocurrency component, the FBI IC3 2025 Annual Report and the Chainalysis Crypto Crime Report serve as cross-checks.
Sources: see below. More detail on our methodology page.
Sources
FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book (annual, 2014-2024) - FTC Data Spotlight - Romance Scammers' Favorite Lies (2023) - FTC - Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 (romance scam losses; baseline for the 2025 partial-year extrapolation) - FTC Consumer Alert - New trends in reports of imposter scams (full-year 2025 romance scam losses: $1.48B, +22% YoY, $2,020 per person per FTC) - FBI IC3 Internet Crime Report 2025. More detail on our methodology page.
Worth a look... Dating scam victims - Online scam victims - Phishing emails.