Romance scam victims send 11 payments over 95 days before realizing the scam

TSB bank data from 2025-2026 shows that the average romance scam victim makes 11 separate payments over a 95-day period before discovering the fraud, losing an average of 7,500 GBP. Only 24% of victims ever recover all their money. Losses jump 37% year-over-year. The scam works because each individual payment is small enough to feel reasonable ('help me with a medical bill,' 'invest just $500 to start'), and the emotional bond built over three months makes the victim rationalize each request. This matters because banks and payment processors see these transactions individually and flag none of them, since each one looks like a normal person-to-person transfer. By the time the pattern is visible in aggregate, the money is gone and usually laundered through crypto. The structural reason is that no financial institution correlates a customer's transaction history with dating app activity, and romance scam payments look identical to legitimate transfers to a romantic partner, so there is no fraud signal until it is far too late.