Romance Scam Statistics: The 2026 Picture
The numbers below reflect the most recent official reporting (FTC and FBI IC3 data through 2024-2025) plus the consistent patterns researchers find behind them. Exact figures shift yearly; the shape of the crisis doesn’t.
The headline scale
US reported romance-scam losses have run above $1 billion annually in recent FTC/IC3 reporting years, with tens of thousands of reports filed — and crypto-investment fraud (heavily pig-butchering, which begins as romance) has climbed past $4-5 billion in IC3’s parallel category. Global estimates run multiples higher.
The number under the number
Every serious study agrees romance fraud is chronically under-reported — common estimates suggest well under half of victims ever file, driven by shame (the syndicates’ best security). True losses plausibly run several times the reported figures.
Who loses, and how much
Median reported losses run in the low-to-mid thousands, but the distribution has a brutal tail: pig-butchering cases regularly reach six and seven figures. Adults over 60 lose the most in aggregate dollars (retirement savings meet patient scripts), while reporting RATES are substantial across every age band — including 20-somethings, who dominate sextortion reports. Cryptocurrency and wires dominate large losses; gift cards dominate frequency.
The 2026 trendlines
Three curves matter now: pig-butchering’s continued surge (industrialized compounds, trafficked operators — see the anatomy); AI adoption (generated faces and live deepfake calls collapsing the old verification advice — see the deepfake guide); and recovery-fraud growth feeding on the first wave’s victims. The scripts are old; the tooling is new; the defense — pattern recognition plus the money law — still works.
Check before you trust
Search any name, photo, phone number, username, or wallet against the registry before money moves — and if you were targeted, report it so the next person finds what you didn’t. Companion anatomies: the fake soldier · the crypto romance · the red-flags checklist.