In six months, a Latvian bank has identified 30 cases of 'romantic fraud' 0 9

All victims are people over 60 years old, with several individuals exceeding 80 years of age, and most of them are women. The average amount that is usually transferred in a single payment ranges from 200 to 500 euros.

Statistics on victims of 'romantic fraud' are not precise, as payments made by clients are often similar to transfers in investment fraud. Additionally, victims rarely acknowledge the fact of being deceived. Senior Fraud Prevention Analyst Mārtiņš Kreitzbergs explains that the average size of a single transfer is usually several hundred euros. Fraudsters deliberately request amounts that fit into the everyday payment habits of elderly people — within 200–300 euros. With regular such transfers, the cumulative damage can become significant.

Over the past six months, the bank has also recorded larger suspicious transfers — over 1,500 and even 2,500 euros, but there is suspicion that this is already a different stage of fraud. As Kreitzbergs explains, the scheme may have started as romantic fraud with small amounts, which later transformed into investment fraud.

"When contact is already established, regular communication begins, trust of the victim is gained, and then the fraudster starts talking about their successful investment experience with supposedly huge profits," notes Kreitzbergs, explaining that the victim believes and transfers money, hoping for income.

The only way to get the money back is to reverse the payment, which is only possible with the recipient's consent. If the payment was made through online banking and the victim authorized it themselves, this is considered consent to carry out the operation, and it can no longer be disputed.

The bank explains that they closely monitor clients' payment activity and pay attention to situations where elderly people start making transfers to foreign accounts, which was previously unusual for them. Kreitzbergs points out that it is often observed that funds are transferred to the same account by several bank clients. Such accounts are identified and blocked, although fraudsters quickly replace them with new ones.

In cases of suspicious payments, clients are asked to contact the bank. Specific questions are posed — who the recipient is, how the client knows them, and what the payment is for. Often, clients cannot answer these questions, and even more often — do not contact the bank at all.

If the bank sees that the payment is fraudulent, even if the client wishes to carry it out, the operation is not conducted, and the client is urged to familiarize themselves with information about fraud.

When fraudsters can no longer directly obtain money, they use another scheme — they ask clients to transfer money to third parties so that clients send it further. The bank emphasizes that this is also dangerous, as in the case of receiving funds from an unknown person and subsequent detection of fraud, the client may face account closure and criminal liability.