It’s Friday the 13th, but you have nothing to fear online if you’re scam-savvy and well protected.
Every week, we round up the biggest scam and cybersecurity stories of the moment so you can recognize red flags, protect your accounts, and avoid the most common traps scammers are using.
This week in scams, we’re talking Valentine’s Day, deepfake deception, and online privacy.
Let’s jump in:
New McAfee Research Shows Romance Scams Spiking
Valentine’s Day is supposed to be peak season for connection. But for scammers, it’s peak season for something else: emotional leverage.
New McAfee research shows romance scams are not rare edge cases, they’re becoming a common part of the online dating experience. In fact, 1 in 7 American adults (15%) say they’ve lost money to an online dating or romance scam. Even more alarming: of the people who lost money, only 1 in 4 (24%) were able to recover all of it.
And many scams start exactly the way real relationships do.
One McAfee interviewee, Jules, a healthcare professional in her 40s, joined a dating app hoping to meet someone as a busy working single mom. She met “Andy,” who seemed local, charming, and emotionally invested. He didn’t rush into money. He built trust. He mirrored her life. He made her feel safe.
Then he introduced a “crypto opportunity” that looked legitimate. The app showed gains. She even withdrew small amounts at first. But weeks later, her account froze, and she was told she needed to pay a $25,000 “tax payment” to unlock it.
She paid. Then the account froze again.
By the time Jules realized the truth, she had lost more than $80,000, including $25,000 borrowed from her elderly mother.
This is the new shape of romance scams: slow, believable, and psychologically engineered. McAfee Labs also reports that romance-related scam activity spikes during peak dating season, including fake profiles, cloned apps, and AI-driven spam behavior.
Key red flags to watch for
- They move fast emotionally (“I’ve never felt this way before”)
- They push you off-platform quickly (WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal)
- Their story sounds polished but hard to verify (military, oil rig, entrepreneur)
- They introduce “investment advice” or crypto opportunities
- They ask for payment apps, gift cards, wire transfers, QR payments, or “fees”
- They claim your money is “frozen” unless you pay one more time
How romance scams typically unfold
While scams can take many forms, most follow a familiar pattern. Understanding the progression can help people recognize risk earlier.
| Stage | The Red Flags / How it Unfolds | What the scammer wants | What to do instead |
| 1) The hook | A friendly DM, a “wrong number” text, a dating match, a comment reply, a follow request | A response. Any response. | Don’t move fast. Keep the convo on-platform. Don’t give out your number. |
| 2) Love bombing | Daily messages, fast intimacy, mirroring your interests, “I’ve never felt this way” | Trust and routine | Slow it down. Ask for a real-time video call and a specific, verifiable detail. |
| 3) Private channels | “Let’s talk on WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal.” “Don’t tell anyone yet.” | Control and privacy | If someone pushes you off-platform quickly, treat it as a red flag. |
| 4) Building credibility | A “job” story (military, oil rig, entrepreneur), polished photos, voice notes, even AI-assisted video | Believability | Verify independently. Reverse image search photos. Watch for inconsistencies. |
| 5) A financial request | A “small” emergency, a plane ticket, a crypto opportunity, “help me unlock my account,” gift cards, payment app request | Money or financial access | Never send money to someone you haven’t met. Never share financial info or account details. |
| 6) Escalation | “I need a verification code.” “Can you receive money for me?” “Open an account.” “Co-sign.” | Identity theft, account takeover, new credit | Never share MFA codes. Don’t open accounts for anyone. Lock credit if you’ve shared info. |
| 7) Ghosting | Ghosting, deleted accounts, new persona, rinse-and-repeat | Exit before consequences hit them | Preserve evidence, report, and secure your accounts immediately. |
Key point: the scariest scams may never send you a sketchy link. They may only send convincing words, and the pressure to act.
Deepfake Fraud Is Going “Industrial”
Deepfake scams used to sound like something only elite hackers could pull off. Not anymore.
Reporting from The Guardian highlights a new analysis from AI experts suggesting deepfake fraud has gone “industrial,” meaning it’s now cheap, scalable, and increasingly accessible to non-experts. Researchers tied to the AI Incident Database described a landscape where impersonation scams are becoming one of the most common types of AI-driven incidents reported month after month.
Instead of crude phishing emails, scammers can now use AI tools to generate:
- Realistic fake videos of public figures
- Fake doctors promoting products
- Fake journalists endorsing scams
- Realistic job applicants and “candidates” who aren’t real people at all
One example described in the reporting involved an AI security CEO who posted a job listing and quickly received a referral for a candidate who looked perfect on paper. The resume was strong. The emails were polished. The interview was scheduled.
But when the video call began, the candidate’s image loaded slowly, and the background looked artificial. The face was blurred around the edges. The person glitched slightly as they spoke. A deepfake detection firm later confirmed: the interviewee was AI-generated.
The most unsettling part? Even the target didn’t know what the scammer was after…. a salary? access to internal systems? company secrets?
This is what makes deepfake scams uniquely dangerous: they’re not always about stealing money immediately. They’re often about getting trust, access, and leverage first.
Key red flags of deepfake impersonation scams
- Video or audio glitches (especially around facial edges)
- Backgrounds that look “too smooth” or artificial
- Delays before video loads or odd syncing between voice and mouth movement
- Overly polished speech with little natural hesitation
- Pressure to move fast, hire fast, or approve payments quickly
This is also why deepfake fraud is so effective: it exploits the assumption that “seeing is believing.” In 2026, that assumption is no longer safe.
This is also backed up by McAfee’s previous research. In 2025, McAfee Labs conducted a study of 17 different deepfake-creation tools and found that for just $5 and with just 10 minutes of setup time, scammers can create powerful, realistic-looking deepfake video and audio scams.
Google “Results About You” Update Shows How Personal Data Fuels Scams
Not every scam story this week is about criminals. This update is about fighting scammers, as shared by Google.
Google announced this week that it has expanded its “Results about you” tool, which helps people monitor and remove sensitive personal information from Search results. Previously, the tool focused on personal contact details like phone numbers, email addresses, and home addresses.
Now, users can also request the removal of Search results that include highly sensitive information like:
- Passport numbers
- Driver’s license numbers
- Social security numbers
Google is also making it easier to request removal of non-consensual explicit images, allowing users to submit multiple images at once rather than reporting them individually.
This matters because personal data is often the fuel behind the scams we’ve been tracking all year, including romance scams.
Removing sensitive data from search results doesn’t erase it from the internet completely but it can reduce how easily scammers can weaponize it. To take your online privacy to the next level, consider McAfee’s Personal Data Cleanup, which will help remove your personal information across the web.
What this tool helps protect against
- Identity theft attempts
- Impersonation scams
- Doxxing threats
- Fake “verification” schemes
- Social engineering and targeted romance scams
The scam lesson here is simple: the less information scammers can find, the harder it is for them to tailor the con.
McAfee’s Safety Tips for This Week
This week’s scam pattern is all about emotional manipulation + AI credibility + personal data exposure. The best defense is slowing down and verifying before you trust.
Here are the smartest moves to make right now:
- Don’t confuse emotional intensity with authenticity. Love bombing is a tactic, not a love language.
- Never send money to someone you haven’t met in real life, no matter how convincing their story is.
- Treat “crypto investing tips” from strangers as an immediate red flag.
- Don’t move off-platform quickly. If someone insists on WhatsApp, Telegram, or Signal early on, assume they’re trying to isolate you.
- Never share verification codes or screenshots of financial apps, even if they claim it’s “just for confirmation.”
- Reverse image search profile photos and look for inconsistencies in background details, timelines, or personal stories.
- If a video call feels off, trust your instincts. Deepfakes often look almost real, but “almost” is the danger zone.
- Reduce your digital footprint. The more personal info available online, the easier it is for scammers to tailor believable impersonations.
- Use tools like McAfee Scam Detector to help flag risky messages across text, email, and social platforms.
- If you suspect a romance scam, stop engaging immediately, document everything, and report it. The sooner you act, the more damage you can prevent.
We’ll be back next week with another roundup of the scams making headlines, and what you can do to stay ahead of them.
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