{"id":2527,"date":"2026-07-25T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/?p=2527"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:29:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:29:31","slug":"romance-scam-statistics-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lfgdating.com\/gamer-dating-blog\/romance-scam-statistics-2026","title":{"rendered":"Romance Scams by the Numbers: What the FTC and Pew Data Actually Show in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

All week we’ve been telling you the scam problem is real. Today we show receipts. Every number below comes from a primary source \u2014 the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel data or Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. online daters \u2014 and every one is linked at the point of mention, because a statistic without a source is just a vibe with a percent sign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The headline numbers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Start with the big one. According to the FTC’s April 2026 Data Spotlight<\/a>, people reported losing $2.1 billion to scams that started on social media in 2025<\/strong> \u2014 roughly eight times the $261 million reported for 2020. Five years, one order of magnitude. That figure covers all scam types, but romance scams hold an ugly share of it: the same FTC report<\/a> counts $298 million reported lost to romance scams originating on social media in 2025 alone<\/strong> \u2014 second only to investment scams among social-media fraud losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where scams actually start (it’s not where you think)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the finding that should reframe how you think about “dating app danger”: per the FTC<\/a>, nearly 60% of people who reported losing money to a romance scam in 2025 said it started on a social media platform<\/strong> \u2014 not on a dating site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That tracks with how the scam economy works. Scammers optimize for unmoderated, unlimited, free contact surfaces \u2014 open DMs, friend requests, comment sections. A dating platform with verification steps and a paid tier is a worse hunting ground than a social feed where a fake account costs nothing and reaches anyone. The lesson isn’t “dating platforms are all safe” \u2014 Wednesday’s moderation comparison<\/a> covers exactly how they differ \u2014 it’s that where you let strangers reach you matters as much as how you vet them<\/em>. For gamers, whose DMs span Discord servers, in-game chat, and streaming platforms, that’s not an abstract point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporting iceberg<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Every number above is almost certainly a dramatic undercount. A 2021 study by FTC economist Keith Anderson<\/a> found that only about 4.8% of people who experience mass-market consumer fraud complain to a Better Business Bureau or government entity<\/strong>. Romance scam victims have extra reasons for silence: embarrassment, grief, and sometimes not yet realizing the relationship was the scam. If roughly one in twenty losses gets reported, the true romance-scam economy isn’t measured in hundreds of millions. Do the multiplication yourself; we’ll wait while you get angry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What daters themselves report<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The FTC counts dollars; Pew Research Center<\/a> counts experiences, and the experiences are widespread:<\/p>\n\n\n\n