Scams on Dating Sites and Apps: The Ones to Know and How to Avoid Them

Most scams on dating sites and apps run the same play: build trust fast, then ask for something that has nothing to do with dating, usually money, a photo or a link. This page maps the scam types, the versions built for our community, what changed with AI, and what to do if you’ve already been hit.

In 2025 the Federal Trade Commission logged 3 million fraud reports and $15.9 billion in reported losses, the highest on record, with investment scams ($7.9 billion) and imposter scams ($3.5 billion) at the top [1]. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center counted 23,159 romance scam complaints and $929 million in losses the same year [2].

Why do these scams work so well?

They work because they target feelings and skip the part where trust gets earned. The messages are frequent, flattering and intense from day one, and that intensity feels like closeness. On an app built for our people it lands even easier: the person on the other end sounds like they went to your cousin’s HBCU, grew up in a church like yours and gets your jokes without a translation.

The same four levers, almost every time:

• trust built too fast, often with big declarations in the first week (“love bombing”),
• emotional acceleration: urgency, exclusivity, promises about a future you haven’t discussed,
• asks that drift outside dating: money, documents, photos, a link, an app to download,
• isolation: “don’t tell anyone,” “your friends wouldn’t understand,” “let’s move this off the app.”

Falling for one says nothing about your judgment.

The most common scams on dating sites and apps

Scam attempts take one of these forms: a fake or AI-built profile, a relationship used to pull money, a fake investment, a fake payment, a booby-trapped link, sexual blackmail, a data grab, or someone impersonating a person you trust.

The fake profile (catfishing)

Polished photos, an impressive life story, and a video call that keeps getting postponed. The 2026 version is harder to spot: the FBI reports that scammers now use AI to generate profile photos and write their scripts, and romance scam losses with a likely AI nexus passed $19 million in 2025 [2][4]. An AI-generated photo won’t show up in a reverse image search. The check that still works is a live video call, early. Ask them to do something a synthetic feed can’t do in the moment: turn their head, wave a hand across their face. The FBI’s tells: distorted hands, unrealistic teeth or eyes, lag, audio that doesn’t match the mouth [4].

The romance scam

The relationship feels real, then an obstacle shows up: a medical bill, a customs fee, a plane ticket. The ask is framed as “just to unblock this,” and the money always has to go by wire, gift card, cash app or crypto [3]. In 2025, 31% of the romance scam losses reported to the FBI moved by cryptocurrency and 25% by wire transfer [2]. Those rails don’t reverse and carry none of the legal protections a credit card payment does [8].

The investment scam (pig butchering)

Under the cover of a warm relationship, you get “introduced” to an opportunity, usually crypto. The FBI calls it cryptocurrency investment fraud; the street name is “pig butchering.” You’re shown fake profits on a fake trading app, encouraged to deposit more, then charged “taxes and fees” when you try to withdraw, and the person vanishes [2]. It was the biggest source of fraud losses to Americans in 2025 at $7.2 billion, and it typically starts on dating apps or social media before moving to a messaging platform [2].

In our community, the pitch comes wrapped in what matters to us:

• “build Black wealth” or “Black-owned exchange” crypto pitches, with a mentor and screenshots of gains;
• “blessing looms,” “gifting circles” and fake sou-sous. A real sou-sou is a savings circle among people who know each other in real life. In 2023 the FTC banned the operators of Blessings in No Time, a “blessing loom” the FTC said targeted Black communities with promises of returns as high as 800% [9];
• a match who says a well-known Black entrepreneur, pastor or athlete “vouches” for the platform.

The second the conversation turns to an investment or an app to download, you’re done talking.

The “sugar” and cash app setup

Someone offers to be your “sugar momma” or “sugar daddy” with a weekly allowance for your attention. They “send” money by Cash App, PayPal or a check, then ask you to forward part of it back: a cut for their “friend,” gift cards, a “processing fee” in bitcoin. The original payment is fake or reverses, the money you sent is gone, and a fake check bounces weeks later. The Better Business Bureau has tracked losses up to $20,000 [11]. If money arrives before you’ve met, don’t touch it and don’t send anything back.

Booby-trapped links and phishing

A link arrives to “verify your identity” or “unlock the chat.” These pages imitate real sites and harvest logins and card numbers. Never enter personal or banking information through a link sent in a message, and never download an app a match sent you. BLK will never send you an email asking for your username and password; if you get one, report it.

Sextortion

Sextortion is blackmail with sexual content. After photos or a video are exchanged, the threat to send them to your family, your job or your church arrives. The FBI received more than 75,000 sextortion submissions in 2025 [2], and the material no longer has to be real: the FBI warns that scammers take ordinary profile photos and use AI to build explicit deepfakes [5]. For LGBTQ+ members the threat is often “pay or I out you.” It is still a bluff that runs on your silence. Don’t pay: the FBI says paying gives no guarantee the material won’t be shared anyway [5]. Stop replying, keep everything, report it at ic3.gov and on the app, and call 911 if the threats turn physical. INTERPOL’s Operation First Light 2026 made 5,811 arrests across 97 countries for scams including sextortion [6].

Identity theft and personal data harvesting

Some people try to collect your documents, address, employer or security-question answers “for safety” or “to prove trust.” A real person doesn’t need your ID to date you. Keep conversations on the app, never send documents, and keep routines (the Monday gym, the church you never miss, your kid’s school) out of early conversations.

The “money mule”

You’re asked to receive money and pass it on. The funds are stolen, and moving them can make you the person the bank and the police come looking for. Refusing is the only safe answer.

Impersonation of people you trust

Imposter scams were the most reported fraud in the country in 2025 [1]. The FTC has warned about scammers who use a real pastor’s name and photo to ask members for gift cards “for a family in need” [10]. On dating apps, the same trick is a match who claims to be a celebrity, an athlete, a bishop or an entrepreneur you follow. A public figure with millions of followers is not DMing you for money or crypto. If a message claims to come from a leader you know, call the church at a number you already have, never one in the message [10].

The scams that particularly target women

Anyone can be targeted, but some schemes lean on fear for your reputation and your safety. Pew Research Center found that women are three times more likely than men to be sexually harassed online (16% vs. 5%) and more likely to be stalked online (13% vs. 9%) [7].

Reputation blackmail, “proof of trust” requests in the form of photos, and threats to send content to your family, your job or your church are the usual moves. Then there is doxxing: collecting and cross-referencing what you share (neighborhood, workplace, routines, socials) to find your address or pressure you, one innocent question at a time. Edited images and deepfakes belong here too: fake humiliating content, real or claimed, used to intimidate you. In every case the responsibility sits with the abuser, never with you.

Practical tips for safer online dating

Prevention comes down to a few reflexes.

Before you chat at length, protect your profile: skip identifying details, and pick photos that aren’t already on your public Instagram or LinkedIn, where a reverse image search can find your full name.

During conversations, watch for a change of rhythm: intensity that doesn’t match how long you’ve known each other, a refusal to video call, pressure to leave the app fast, and any mention of money, investments or links. Keep the conversation on the app while you get to know someone: exchanges on BLK are subject to Safe Message Filters, which is exactly why people with bad intentions push to move to text or a messaging app right away.

Before a date, pick a public place, tell someone close to you where you’ll be, and stay in control of your own transportation.

What to do if you’ve been scammed

If you realize you’ve been targeted, these steps put you back in control:

1. End the conversation. You owe no explanation.
2. Block and report the profile from any profile page or messaging window.
3. Keep the evidence: profile screenshots, messages, links, usernames and any payment records.
4. Call your bank or payment app right away if you sent money. Speed matters: the FBI’s Recovery Asset Team can sometimes freeze funds when complaints come in quickly [2].
5. Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. Both are online forms: you don’t have to walk into a precinct, and if you’d rather not deal with police, these reports still feed the investigations.
6. If you’re being blackmailed, don’t pay, and get help. If anyone threatens to hurt you, call 911.

Tell one person: scammers count on shame to keep you quiet.

Emergency Resources

In short

Scams on dating sites and apps run on a handful of known mechanisms, and the versions aimed at our community borrow our trust in church, family and Black-owned everything. Learn the script, keep money and photos out of it, video call early, stay on the app, and know who to tell if something goes wrong.

11 sources

1. [1]

   ftc.gov — Federal Trade Commission, FTC Testifies Before Joint Economic Committee on Agency's Efforts to Combat Fraud (2025 Consumer Sentinel data), March 25, 2026

2. [2]

   ic3.gov — FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, 2025 Internet Crime Report, April 2026

3. [3]

   consumer.ftc.gov — Federal Trade Commission, What To Know About Romance Scams

4. [4]

   ic3.gov — FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Criminals Use Generative Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Financial Fraud (PSA), December 3, 2024

5. [5]

   ic3.gov — FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Malicious Actors Manipulating Photos and Videos to Create Explicit Content and Sextortion Schemes (PSA), June 5, 2023

6. [6]

   interpol.int — INTERPOL, Over 5, 800 arrests, USD 293 million intercepted in global fraud bust (Operation First Light 2026), July 9, 2026

7. [7]

   pewresearch.org — Pew Research Center, The State of Online Harassment, January 13, 2021

8. [8]

   ftc.gov — Federal Trade Commission, New FTC Staff Report Outlines Impact of Fraud on Communities of Color (Serving Communities of Color), October 15, 2021

9. [9]

   ftc.gov — Federal Trade Commission, Operators of "Blessing Loom" Scheme Banned from Multi-Level Marketing (Blessings in No Time), July 26, 2023

10. [10]

    consumer.ftc.gov — Terri Miller, Federal Trade Commission, Is that gift card helping your congregation or paying a scammer?, September 17, 2024

11. [11]

    bbb.org — Better Business Bureau, BBB Scam Alert: This romance con dupes daters with the promise of a "sugar momma", updated January 23, 2025