Happy Valentine's Day! Let's Talk Scams

Back in the 1990's I read about a mafia associated brokerage firm that had decided the real money wasn't in pump-n-dumps but in using "Know Your Customer" information gathered by the brokerage—primitive as it might have been pre-9/11, pre-WorldWideWeb—to set up a dating service used to gather even more information about potential marks.
Now, with the internet, it has to be even easier.

From FT Alphaville:
Romance scams are on the rise

On this Valentine's Day, some heartbreaking news.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), romance scams are on the rise. In 2018, the FTC's online database of consumer complaints, the Consumer Sentinel, recorded over 20,000 reports of romance scams, which cost the hoodwinked $143m. That's up from 8,500 reports in 2015, which amounted to $33m in losses, as the FTC's chart shows:...

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