What you need to know about online romance scams.

<div class="block">If you&#39;re looking for love online, beware of scammers. The Federal Trade Commission reported that nearly 70,000 people became victims of online romance scams last year. We take a deep dive into what you need to know about fraud accounts across a number of dating apps and services.</div>

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What to Know About Online Romance Scams

The Federal trade Commission reported last year that romance scams are big business citing cases of nearly 70,000 people who became victims of one. The financial losses from those scams they've added up to more than get this A billion dollars with a B, take a look from Tinder to hinge. More Americans are looking for love online than ever before in history. But Mr Wright might not always be a swipe away and parts of Nigeria were whole, you know, people starve to death and food are in short supply. We go to bed without food. The turn to Tara team has learned scamming single Americans online is a popular pastime. It's something that everyone does. And Ada Ada who goes by the name Chris should know because the 24 year old spent years convincing lonely women twice his age and a world away to send him tens of thousands of dollars. How long did it typically take you to get one of your victims to fall in love with you? Maybe four days. We even obtained a copy of the Romance Scammer playbook that helped pull it off. It's an online manual for criminals filled with ready made scripts and methods for requesting money quickly. How many women did you get to fall in love with the other? I don't know so many that you can't count them. Yeah, Chris says he was never caught but ultimately stopped scheming after learning of one of his victims hardship, I just felt like these days he consults for social catfish, a company that uses reverse search technology to prevent online scams which are on the rise. According to the Federal Trade Commission, Americans lost more than a billion dollars to romance scams. Last year, the largest spike ever recorded and New York had the fourth largest of victims and the average victim loses close to $50,000. Here are some ways you can avoid a similar fate. Do a reverse image search of their profile pic because often they're stolen from modeling or military sites. Be skeptical of anyone who drops the L word without meeting in person and never send money to someone you haven't met. Very good advice. Thanks to Tara Rosenbloom for that report.