Relationship and romance

A scammer convinces you to enter a virtual, online relationship so the scammer can gain your trust and affection. This can occur through:

• Email messages
• Fake profiles on social media and dating sites

Eventually, the scammer may ask you:

• for money for travel, a medical emergency or family assistance – making it seem urgent or like an emergency
• to receive money for them – by doing so you might unknowingly be committing a crime
• to join a business venture with them
• to invest in cryptocurrency

Scammers will try to use any means necessary to convince you that their requests are legitimate. The majority of fraud is not committed by amateurs and they will use technology to their advantage.

Variations

Combining romance and investment scams

The CAFC is noticing an increase in a combination of romance and investment scams which are often referred to as "pig butchering". In these scams, you are contacted on dating apps or social media by a fraudster who is attempting to develop a relationship with you to gain your trust. After trust is gained, the fraudster will claim that they have been a successful investor in cryptocurrency and can help you also make money and "get rich" and convince you to invest.

They may even let you cash out some of your investment returns only to get you to invest a larger amount. Suspects will “coach” you on how to invest in their fraudulent crypto currency platforms. Unfortunately, once you request to withdraw their investment, you can’t.

Relationship investment fraud phishing

Sometimes reffered to as approval phishing. Fraudsters deceive you into granting access to your cryptocurrency accounts by those posing as trusted services. After they coach you on how to acquire cryptocurrency like Etherium or Tron, they send you a fake request appears to come from the crypto service, asking you to “approve” access to your wallet. By clicking “approve,” you unknowingly give control of you funds fraudster. The fake requests closely mimic legitimate apps and services, making them look authentic. In some cases, you may receive a transfer request asking you to click on a link to accept and you may unknowingly be providing the “approval” to access your wallet.

Look out for these red flags and be suspicious:

• when someone you haven’t met in person professes their love to you
• if the person wants to quickly move to a private or different mode of communication (email, text, Whatsapp, Google Hangouts etc.)
• if they always have an excuse not to meet in person
• if you receive poorly/oddly written messages, sometimes even addressing you by the wrong name
• if the individual claims to live close to you but is working overseas
• if they act distressed or angry to guilt you into sending money
• if the individual discourages you from discussing them or their situation with your friends and family (attempting to isolate you from those who may be suspicious of the relationship)
• if someone offering to “coach” you on crypto investing
• of emails appearing to be from your crypto service provider asking you to click on links
• of get rich quick investment opportunities
• of individuals met on dating sites or social media who attempt to educate and convince you to invest into crypto currency

How to protect yourself

• Don’t give out your personal information (name, address, DOB, SIN, banking credentials)
• Don’t accept friend requests from people you do not know
• Don’t invest your money in platforms provided by people you don’t know
• Never send money to someone you haven’t met
• Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on your accounts
• Beware of fraudsters asking you to open and fund new crypto accounts, they will direct you to send it to wallets they control - Don’t!
• If you have granted a suspect access to your crypto account, follow the OPP’s checklist to revoke the token approval

Date modified:

2025-02-13