ICE Launches Digital Romance Scams Awareness Campaign

Washington, DC–As part of its role in combatting online financial fraud, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) today launches a five-day digital awareness campaign to remind the public about the dangers of online romance scams.

The campaign is part of an ICE partnership with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), who have launched Dating or Defrauding, a national awareness effort to alert the public to romance scams that target victims largely through dating apps or social media.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 2020 was a record year for romance scams and consumer reports to the FTC indicate that the number of romance scam complaints continued to increase through 2021.

The multi-agency awareness campaign runs Feb. 7 to Mar. 11, to help individuals protect their heart and their wallet and illustrates to the public how to recognize the scams before they give any money or assets and provides steps to take if they are victimized. To learn more about online romance scams and how you can protect yourself, visit ice.gov/features/romance-scams.

Call the ICE Tipline at 866-347-2423, or visit ice.gov/tipline to report suspicious activity.

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