Love or Fraud? How to spot and avoid online Valentine’s Day scams

Common Romance Scams on Valentine’s Day

Scammers exploit people's vulnerability, especially those who may be spending Valentine’s Day alone. Here are some of the most common scam tactics:

• Unexpected love confessions – expressing strong emotions too soon to gain trust.
• From love to financial requests – quickly shifting from romantic talk to asking for money due to an "emergency."
• Avoiding in-person meetings – constantly rescheduling or refusing to meet.
• Phishing attempts – asking for delivery details or sending fake pages that request personal information (e.g., emails pretending to be from a "dating app").
• Fake gifts with extra fees – claiming they sent you a present but need you to pay extra for delivery, taxes, or customs.
• AI Deepfakes – someone famous wants to chat with you or send you videos.

And there are likely many more scams out there. If something feels suspicious, strange, or just doesn’t add up — double-check it.

All you need is a photo of the potential scammer to start investigating.

How can you find someone with a picture?

Spot Romance Scams with a Face Search Tool

Thanks to reverse face search tools like lenso.ai, you can safely check whether your Valentine’s date is a potential scammer. Simply upload an image to lenso.ai and check the People category.

You can then see where the image of a particular person appears online. If the same image is found on multiple sources, you can compare information to verify its authenticity. It’s best to check different images across various sources, as scammers often use different pictures on different platforms.

If someone insists on anything urgently (money transfer, sharing some personal information) it may be a sign that they are running out of time—perhaps because they are already being exposed.

To investigate further, you can sort your image results on lenso.ai by "newest" to check the latest online appearances of the image. Alternatively, sorting by "oldest" lets you see when the first record of the person appeared. You can also sort by:

• best/worst match
• random
• show diverse results

If you are aware of specific websites or forums that publish information about potential fraudsters, you can filter by those websites on lenso.ai to check for any matches.

Another useful option is setting up an Alert for a specific image. This way, you'll receive an email notification when new image results for that person appear online—an essential feature for long-term investigations. However, patience is key in such cases.

How else can you protect yourself from being scammed?

• Do not accept suspicious invitations on social media or dating apps.
• Avoid clicking on shared links that seem fake or suspicious.
• Never share personal information, credit card details, or other sensitive data.
• Double-check everything before taking action.
• Stay skeptical and aware of potential manipulation tactics.

How to tell you’re being catfished? Most effective tips

Important!

Scammers use sophisticated tactics, so it's wise to ask them to send different pictures of themselves. Later, you can run a reverse image search on lenso.ai with all the images they provided. This increases your chances of detecting a potential romance scammer. If everything checks out — then it's time to prepare for your Valentine’s date!