Ahead of Valentine’s Day, cybersecurity experts are warning consumers to be cautious online, whether they’re looking for love or trying to grab a last minute gift.
Why do scams increase around Valentine’s Day? Anne Cutler, Cybersecurity Expert at Keeper Security, notes: “Valentine’s Day is one of the easiest moments of the year for romance scams to succeed, largely because people are more open to connection. When emotions run high, caution often slips quietly into the background, and scammers understand exactly how to use that to their advantage.”
Notably, this week, researchers from Check Point Software announced that they’d identified a sharp rise in Valentine-themed domain registrations, many of which are suspected to be phishing sites, fraudulent stores and fake dating platforms designed to steal personal data and payment information. From March to December 2025, new Valentine-related domains averaged 474 per month. But in January 2026, registrations jumped to 696 (a 44% increase). In just the first five days of February, researchers detected 152 additional domains, a further 36% rise in daily average compared to January. Almost all (97.5%) remain unclassified, meaning they could be activated for malicious use at any moment. Worryingly, attackers build these domains around common search terms, like “Valentine’s Day gifts,” designed to catch the attention of shoppers in a panic.
But it’s not just dodgy websites that consumers need to look out for, Roger Grimes, CISO Advisor at KnowBe4, warned that there’s a surge in AI-enabled romance scams which have reshaped what we traditionally think of as romance scam red flags. Grimes notes: “Romance scams have evolved into a completely AI-enabled enterprise. Scammers are no longer just using stolen photos; they are creating entire fake identities, real-time video personalities on Zoom and WhatsApp, and automated conversation bots that build deep emotional trust over months.”
Specifically, Grimes suggests three scams to keep an eye out for:
- The Death of the Photo Test: Scammers can now instantly generate an image of themselves holding a specific newspaper or standing in a specific location, making it impossible to verify identity through media alone.
- Deepfake FaceTime: Real-time video calls are no longer a guarantee of safety. Scammers use live face-swapping and AI voice synthesis to hold entire conversations without human input.
- The Celebrity Effect: When scammers masquerade as celebrities, victims are often so emotionally invested that they continue to send money, sometimes taking out second mortgages or stealing from family, even when presented with hard evidence (like a celebrity being married or in a different country).
New research from TSB underscores shows the scale of the issue. The research found that in 2025 there was a 15% rise in the number of cases of romance fraud, with the value with the value of payments sent to fraudsters increasing by 37%. On average, victims send 11 payments per case, losing £7,500 before the scam is uncovered.
So, how does it happen? Anne Cutler from Keeper Security said: “What tends to catch people off guard is how ordinary these interactions feel at the start. The profile looks believable, the conversation flows naturally and the attention feels steady rather than intense. In many cases, that sense of comfort builds gradually over days or even weeks, which is entirely intentional. Romance scammers rarely ask outright for passwords or money, because that would immediately raise suspicion and bring the interaction to an end.”
“Instead, the shift happens almost unnoticed. A link is shared in the course of conversation. There’s a reason to log in to something familiar. The page looks like a service you recognize and may have used many times before, but it’s actually a lookalike site designed to capture information the moment it’s entered. Nothing dramatic happens, and there’s no obvious signal that anything has gone wrong, but access has already changed hands,” Cutler continues.
Cyber experts are emphasising that consumers should remain “sceptical” of potential lovers and ‘too good to be true’ sites and offers.
Grimes concludes: “As we head into the most romantic time of the year, the advice from experts is clear: be sceptical of anyone who is “too perfect,” and remember that while AI can simulate love, its only true goal is the bottom line.”
Dedicated organisations, like LoveSaid, can support victims of romance scams.
