I thought Id hit the Tinder jackpot then my online lover scammed me out of $40,000

He puts the “con” in romantic connection. Rather than scoring love at first swipe, Katie Powell, a single mom, was scammed out of $40,000 by a trickster on Tinder.  “It’s turned my life upside down,” Powell, from Portland, Oregon, told KGW, her local NBC outlet. Sadly, leaving victims in total upheaval seems to be the modus operandi of romance scammers worldwide. As singletons continue turning to dating apps, such as Tinder and Hinge, scrolling for sweethearts, an increasing number of fraudsters are using Photoshop and artificial intelligence to create faux profiles and con the lonely out of their loot. According to the Federal Trade Commission, approximately 70,000 people reported being targeted by flirtatious flimflammers in 2022 alone. Folks ranging in age from 40 to 69 tend to be prime prey for the virtual vultures, per the FTC.Katherine Goodson, 67, a widow from San Diego, is now living in her car after being fleeced for over $60,000 by a phoney-baloney Romeo who impersonated actor Keanu Reeves in the name of grifting. Anne, a 53-year-old interior designer from France, was suckered out of $850,000 from a tech-savvy schemer in January.The no-good guy used AI to pretend to be Brad Pitt. “I loved the man I was talking to,” Anne confessed.

“He knew how to talk to women and it was very well put together.”Powell, too, fell fast for the guy who ultimately pulled a fast one over on her. The digital deceiver, a 40-something who claimed to be a civil engineer working in Turkey, hooked her with heaps of hot-and-heavy communication. “I mean it was ongoing, constant texting right away for the first, for the entire relationship,” Powell said.Their buzzy back-and-forth chats went on for more than a month before the scoundrel began asking for money. “Instantly, my instinct was like, ‘Why would somebody, you’ve never met me, I’ve known you for 10 days,'” Powell groaned.“Why would you be asking me for money?”Powell’s would-be ...