Romance Fraud named second most common Surrey scam targeting vulnerable people
This Valentines day, Surrey Police are urging people to talk to their loved ones about potential romance scams
This Valentines day, Surrey Police are urging people to talk to their loved ones about potential romance scams.
This comes as Surrey Police have named romance fraud as the second most common scam costing local people money.
Residents lost over 120 million pounds last year to scams as a whole in nearly 7000 reported cases.
Last year - those classified as vulnerable in Surrey lost over 14 million pounds in total to fraudsters - the second most common con being romance fraud.
Bernadette Laurie from Surrey Police tells us
"In the last 12 months, we've seen a 14.5% increase in romance fraud - which is a significant increase in any crime type, particularly as this is a type we've seen for a while.
"We saw it massively peak after lockdown, but now cases have come right back up.
"This crime type affects anyone - men and women alike, any sexuality as well and any age-range.
"89% were targeted online - it really is an online type of fraud.
"Lovebombing is a main sign of the scam - to start with, it can be a very quick sort of beginning, but in that time the fraudster is trying to isolate the person from their friends and family.
"They talk about soul mates, saying nobody else understands them like they do,
"If you're in that situation that is a real red flag to look out for."