As romantics prepare to spend $867 million on Valentine’s Day, ACCC warns on love scams

With Valentine’s Day just two days away, chocolate sellers are preparing their wares, florists are getting ready for their annual rush and bed and breakfast owners are turning down the sheets.

Research company IBISWorld predicts Australian lovers will spend $867 million on Valentine’s Day this year, including $280 million on chocolates and confectionary, just under $400 million on romantic trips and $45 million on flowers.

But for all those singles thinking of looking for love online this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has issued a special warning – be careful of scams involving romance and dating sites.

ACCC acting chairman and chair of the Australasian Consumer Fraud Taskforce, Peter Kell, says the consumer watchdog has seen a 30% increase in complaints about online dating services, mainly around the problem of scammers extracting money from vulnerable lonely hearts.

“Scammers target victims by creating fake profiles on internet dating sites, chat rooms or introductory services and they go to great lengths to establish a trusting relationship with victims,” Kell said in a statement.

“These scammers then prey on the victim’s emotional vulnerability by representing that they wish to travel to Australia or are in urgent need of money and ask for help to pay for airfares, passport, family hospital bills and other costs.”

In one case highlighted by the ACCC, a woman sent an online friend $95,000 over six months to help with medical problems. But after taking out an extra loan to provide the support, she was suddenly unable to make contact with the friend and ended up losing her house.

Kell says the embarrassment factor of victims means the real rate of scams is vastly underreported.

The ACCC advises people using online dating sites to be wary of giving away personal details and money and other gifts to people you have only met online.