Money and scams

Romance fraud and scams

Nobody you meet on Just One A Day should ever ask you for money, and nobody legitimate will. Romance fraud is a crime and it works by building a relationship first, sometimes over months, so that the request when it comes feels like helping somebody you care about.

In 2025 people in the UK reported losing more than £102m (City of London Police, 2025) to romance fraud.

What it looks like

  • They are always about to meet you and never do. A trip falls through, a visa, an emergency at work.
  • They move you off the platform quickly, to an app where nobody is watching.
  • The first ask is small, and reasonable, and somebody paid it back once.
  • Then something urgent happens: a medical bill, a customs fee, a flight home, a frozen account, an investment that closes tonight.
  • They ask you to keep it between you, or to move money for somebody else. Moving money for somebody else can make you a criminal too, whatever you were told.

What to do

Stop sending money and stop apologising for it. Somebody who reacts badly to being told no has told you what they wanted.

Tell Report Fraud, which is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud: reportfraud.police.uk or 0300 123 2040. In Scotland, report to Police Scotland on 101.

Tell your bank straight away if you have sent anything. There is more they can do in the first hours than later.

Tell us, so the account goes — report someone.

You have not been stupid. Romance fraud is run by organised groups who do this for a living, against people who were being kind. The people who work on it say the same thing: the ones who report it are the reason the next person does not lose anything.

What we do about it

  • We create no fake profiles and we never will. That is in what we do not promise and it is not a thing we would trade.
  • Everybody proves who they are before anybody sees them — an identity document and a check that their face matches it.
  • We act on reports, and a report of fraud is not treated as a disagreement between two people.
  • We will not tell you we have caught them all. We have not, and no service has.