Community Substandards

Capturing the Empty Promises of Big Tech’s Safety Against Online Romance Scams

According to the Internet Crimes Complaint Center, romance scams have quadrupled in the last year, with over 23,000 complaints totaling more than $600 million in losses. Likely this is just the tip of the iceberg as many victims are too ashamed to report this type of fraud.

This report by ACCO members Advocating Against Romance scammers takes a look at how Facebook and YouTube enables and profits off of the Yahoo Boys, an organized criminal group involved in romance scams. After creating a fake profile, Denny and Waters uncovered and reported 24 Groups to Facebook that were openly trading tips on how to carry out romance scams and launder money, as well as where to buy scripts, fake government documents and real peoples’ identities. They also reported active fake profiles demonstrably built from the stolen identities of Facebook users, two of which have verified profiles. Collectively these men have seen their personal information used in more than 12,000 fake profiles, netting more than $4 million for scammers. None of the Groups were removed while only 30% of the fake profiles were taken down.

Denny and Waters also reported twelve videos to YouTube that were of “How To” guides on romance scamming. Follow up by YouTube never occurred and all twelve videos remain active on the platform.