Romance scams: How they work, how they win and what we do about

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Valentine’s day might be over, but love is in the air.

The love a scammer has for their victim’s wallet, that is.

In this special episode of Security Intelligence, host Matt Kosinski sits down with Claire Nunez, Suja Viswesan, and Dave Bales to break down how modern romance scams actually work: from the “wrong number” text that starts an innocent chat, to long-con “pig butchering” schemes that use emotion, trust and time to extract money — often through crypto investment bait.

The panel explains why anyone can fall for these scams, how breaches and public records can help scammers build convincing victim profiles and how AI is making the problem worse.

Finally, the team gets practical: how to talk to a loved one who may be caught in a scam, how to remove stigma so people report faster and what organizations can do when a “personal” scam becomes a corporate risk.

Key takeaways: Don’t respond to unknown numbers, treat online “investment opportunities” as a red flag and remember: if this happened to you, you’re not alone.

The opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the participants and do not necessarily reflect the views of IBM or any other organization or entity.