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Victims caught up in romance scams are now likened to pigs being fattened for slaughter, due to clever social engineering carried out by fraudsters.

Rip Off Britain has heard from viewers who met someone on a dating site and felt they’d made a real connection over a long period of time, but later realised they’d been groomed by a scammer – often losing large sums of money in the process.

Chef Alexandr Gutu, from Moldova, has lived in the UK since 2016. He was working two jobs to try and save a deposit for a house.

By the end of 2022 he’d saved up £42,000.

Around the same time, he set up a profile on Tinder, hoping to find love. Alex, 33, was soon matched with Kristine and they quickly grew close, messaging each other for several weeks.

“We had a really nice chat about the future, about plans, kids,” he told Rip Off Britain. “I really felt I can trust this person.”

When Alex shared his plans to buy a house, Kristine said her uncle was a professional cryptocurrency trader who could help him grow his savings pot.

They were introduced, and Kristine’s ‘uncle’ soon won Alex’s trust. Alex first invested £850, followed by bigger sums as he saw his investment growing.

Alex’s online relationship with Kristine was also blooming, as they frequently messaged each other off the Tinder platform.

“I was feeling really happy,” Alex told Rip Off Britain. “I was thinking after a long time, I found a really good girl who can potentially be my wife and we can create a family.”

Alex had deposited £40,000 into crypto accounts, but when he asked to withdraw some of it Kristine’s ‘uncle’ went silent.

He and Kristine both blocked Alex’s phone number, and Kristine’s profile disappeared from Tinder, leaving him with no way of contacting her.

Reality hit, as Alex realised he’d been the victim of a long and cruel scam.

“I lost everything. I was feeling like, I am still alive but mentally I was dead,” Alex said.

As well as having his confidence shaken, Alex must now start saving up again after losing every penny of his house deposit.

But he’s far from alone, as scammers’ methods of targeting victims become ever more sophisticated.

The term ‘hybrid scam’ refers to a case which has features of more than one scam – such as a victim unknowingly forming a relationship with a fraudster on a dating site, and then being persuaded to part with money on the basis of the trust built up between them.

It can also refer to cases where a victim makes a payment for goods which don’t exist, and is later targeted by the same fraudster posing as the victim’s bank.

“The concept of pig butchering is the idea of fattening up the victim, getting them to invest more, more and more of that money, over a long period of time. Ultimately that final prize - in the case of Alex, £40,000, his entire savings - it really is quite nefarious,” says Adenike Cosgrove, cybersecurity expert from Proofpoint.

She believes it’s no surprise that people who start out looking for love are lured into parting with their cash, as criminals are experts in social engineering.

“They're leveraging that human desire to connect, that human desire to be with somebody,” Adenike adds. “And in that state of excitement and vulnerability, and anxiety in some cases, you're using your fast brain. You're not slowing down. So the criminals are experts in getting you into that vulnerable state, to potentially take actions that you wouldn't normally.”

In cases like Alex’s, she says fraudsters spend long periods of time gathering personal information about their victim, learning how much money they have and what kind of goals they have for the future.

Anna Rowe runs the online community ‘Catch the Catfish’, which offers advice and signposts support for victims of online romance fraud.

“It's a really vile crime and unfortunately for victims, there's not a lot of justice,” she says.

Anna investigated Kristine’s profile and used a reverse image search to determine that the photos were stolen from a real social media account.

“We need to move to having proper verification on these platforms,” she adds. “Whether it's passports, social security numbers, driving licences – a much more secure verification system is the only way that we’re going to start protecting users.”

Last year saw a 12-fold increase in hybrid scams, so here’s Adenike’s advice on what to look out for:

• If you’re initially contacted with unsolicited messages, be cautious. You might be direct messaging someone very polite but they’re still a complete stranger.

• Be aware of anyone trying to move your conversations away from a legitimate platform, like a dating app. They could be trying to take you onto a channel that’s encrypted or unauthorised – or even a fake cryptocurrency exchange that they’ve created.

• Someone asking you for money is a big red flag, so log off immediately and report them to the platform you’re using.

A spokesperson for Tinder said: “We are saddened to hear of anyone who has fallen victim to a romance scam when seeking a genuine connection. We have a zero-tolerance policy on this type of behaviour and constantly monitor our platform to detect and remove suspicious profiles.

“We encourage our users to look for the ‘blue tick’, which indicates that the profile image is genuine and has been verified by Tinder through our Photo Verification Programme. All users are asked to photo verify their profiles when joining Tinder and users can ask their match to verify their photos before they allow them to send a message.

“We encourage all users to video chat as part of the process of getting to know each other. Users should never feel pressured to move conversations to another platform, where safeguards may not exist.

“We partner with police forces and NGOs to promote safe dating, including how to identify potential bad actors. We encourage users to report any profiles that appear suspicious via the in-app reporting function.”

Anna Rowe’s website is

Watch Rip Off Britain’s report on Monday 9th October at 9:15am, Â鶹ԼÅÄ One, or on Â鶹ԼÅÄ iPlayer