{"id":22032,"date":"2026-02-13T13:27:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/love-in-the-time-of-crypto-doj-warns-of-valentines-day-romance-scams\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:27:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:27:25","slug":"love-in-the-time-of-crypto-doj-warns-of-valentines-day-romance-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/love-in-the-time-of-crypto-doj-warns-of-valentines-day-romance-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Love in the time of crypto: DOJ warns of Valentine\u2019s Day romance scams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">As Valentine\u2019s Day approaches, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Ohio is warning the public about a surge in romance scams that target people through online relationships and often lead to financial loss, including requests for cryptocurrency payments.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_9f90bc6b32b4854894f84be83e28e7ff\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Ohio issued a Valentine\u2019s Day warning about a surge in romance scams, many involving cryptocurrency payments.<\/li>\n<li>Scammers build fake online relationships over weeks or months before requesting money for \u201cemergencies,\u201d travel, or bogus crypto investments.<\/li>\n<li>Officials urge the public never to send gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency to someone they have not met in person, citing rising financial losses nationwide.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>Criminals behind these schemes exploit victims\u2019 trust and emotions by posing as romantic partners on dating sites, social media and messaging apps. <\/p>\n<p>After building what appears to be a genuine relationship over weeks or months, scammers eventually ask victims for money, often under the guise of emergencies, travel costs or investment opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How crypto romance scams typically work<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cRomance scammers are not looking for love \u2014 they are looking for money,\u201d said U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer. \u201cThey prey on trust and emotion \u2026 never send money to someone you have not met in person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the federal warning, fraudsters typically follow a pattern:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They create fake profiles using stolen photos.<\/li>\n<li>Claim to work overseas in the military, oil rigs or business.<\/li>\n<li>Quickly profess deep feelings or commitment.<\/li>\n<li>Shift conversations off public platforms to private messaging.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Red flags include early declarations of love, excuses for not meeting in person, repeated \u201cemergencies,\u201d and unusual payment requests, especially gift cards, cryptocurrency or wire transfers.<\/p>\n<p>Such scams have grown more sophisticated in recent years. In some cases, victims are directed to bogus investment platforms that promise unrealistically high returns before the scammers disappear with funds. <\/p>\n<p>National reports have found that romance and confidence scams accounted for significant losses, often involving cryptocurrency transactions.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As Valentine\u2019s Day approaches, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Ohio is warning the public about a surge in romance scams that target people through online relationships&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22032"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22034,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22032\/revisions\/22034"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}