By Rebecca Masters
Publication Date: 2026-02-09 23:41:00
According to the Australian Federal Police, scammers want to hook you up quickly – possibly in the first 48 hours – and then try to delay the connection as long as possible to extort as much money as possible.
According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), 1330 Australians lost more than $28.6 million to romance scams last year, up more than 20 percent from the previous year.
The scams can last weeks or even years, with some Australians losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In one case, a man in his 60s was in what he believed to be a relationship with someone online for two years.
He sent the scammer money and even took out a mortgage for a house before finally reporting the situation…
