Romance Scams: ACCC Deputy Chair Catriona Lowe on Red Flags, AI Risks & How to Protect Yourself | Friends With Money

Romance scams are evolving fast, and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission wants Australians to recognise the warning signs earlier.

On this week’s Friends With Money podcast, managing editor Vanessa Walker speaks with ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe about the regulator’s romance scam awareness campaign and why these crimes cause serious financial loss and long‑lasting emotional harm.

Lowe explains that romance scams involve fake relationships designed to steal money and personal data. They often start on dating apps or social platforms before quickly moving to encrypted messaging services. She outlines two common scam models, fast investment pitches and long‑running “slow burn” requests, and reveals Australians reported more than $28.6 million in losses to Scamwatch through 2025.

The episode also explores the ACCC’s taskforce approach, a new online relationship health check tool, the incoming scams prevention framework for banks, telcos and digital platforms, the role of organised crime and trafficking, and how AI could help ddefeat reverse image searches.

Links: ACCC Scamwatch

00:30 What are romance scams?

02:42 How big the losses are

04:45 How scams move online

06:18 Industry crackdown tools

07:49 Scams prevention framework

11:13 Who runs these rings

13:47 AI and future scams

16:08 Who Is most at risk

19:02 Warning signs and next steps

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