Wednesday 4 October 2023, 10am-11am (BST)

Scammers do not just ask for money. Romance fraud victims may also be coerced into laundering money (often unwittingly), or being part of a much bigger organised crime like business email compromise fraud.

But romance fraud victims are often belittled and seen as naive and gullible. They have many common qualities, including being kind, empathetic, trustworthy, respectful, generous with heart and feelings, and wanting to help others, but they are not stupid.

It is a person’s personality traits, past experiences, and their prior knowledge of scammers’ techniques that will ultimately shape whether the scam works on them or not and to what level.

If you’ve bought something from an advert, succumbed to that special offer in a shop, or taken credit to be able to afford the car that the salesperson pitched you, you are a victim of manipulation. Is it any wonder then, that romance scams are escalating at a rate faster than any other?

The issue here is not just to do with the lack of action from authorities but as much to do with those who empower the scammers by blaming victims, making them feel unable to share their stories and limiting the much-needed awareness.

How do we change this? By educating as many as we can to reduce the stigma, increase awareness and give the scammers a smaller demographic to work with. Because don’t you think the victims do enough victim blaming of themselves?

Guest chaired by

Amanda Coleman (info), Director, Amanda Coleman Communication

Presented by

Anna Rowe, Founder, Catch The Catfish, and Co-founder, LoveSaid

Cecilie Fjellhøy, Co-Founder, LoveSaid