Imagine messaging someone you believe you are falling in love with — only to discover the person on the other end never existed.
That moment arrives for thousands of Americans each year, costing them not only heartbreak but real money. The FBI’s Jacksonville field office reported that in 2025 alone, romance scams resulted in more than $22 million in losses.
Recommended Videos
A St. Augustine woman says her mother has fallen victim to two fake celebrity profiles on social media.
The daughter asked not to be identified to protect her mother’s privacy.
She says her mother believes she is in an online relationship with Yellowstone actor Cole Hauser and television producer John Irwin — and has spent real money on it.
She shared with us texts showing her trying to warn her mother about romance scams.
“It really, I mean, it’s more of a one-way street with my mom,” she said. “When I tell her that, she doesn’t believe it.”
The daughter says her mother has possibly spent nearly $1,000 believing she was purchasing a meet-and-greet with one of the stars. She says it makes her feel powerless.
“Absolutely. That’s what I think hurts the most, is being so powerless with it,” she said. “And one thing, too, that I’m fortunate of is that you did get in touch with me, because I think the biggest thing is awareness. You know, if it’s not for my mom, somebody.”
Detective Dakota McDonald with the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office says the pattern is familiar and costly.
“These people end up falling further and further, and they just keep shelling out money, one hand over the other,” he said.
Many times, he said, the people being scammed never meet the person they are messaging.
“Most of the cases, they never met,” he said.
When it comes to making arrests, investigators face long odds. McDonald says they are successful around 20% to 30% of the time.
Fraud is broad and is a growing problem across all of Northeast Florida. Romance scams are a small part of a bigger problem.
People are receiving phishing texts from fake Apple accounts, fraudulent toll road notices and fake bank alerts.
Others are losing money to home-buying scams or having their identities stolen outright. The threats are wide-ranging, and investigators say no one is immune.
The numbers reflect that.
In Nassau County, fraud cases jumped from 126 in 2021 to 227 in 2025.
St. Johns County saw fraud reports nearly double, from 682 to 1,227 in that same period.
Clay County has also seen an overall rise, though the trend recently moved in a more encouraging direction over the last several years. Data sent to us shows cases climbed from 578 in 2021 to 650 in 2025, which was actually three fewer than the year before. Numbers in Clay County have dropped since 2023.
McDonald’s advice is simple: pause and verify.
“There are steps to verify that the people that you talked to are who you were talking to,” he said.
The daughter had her own message for the people running these scams.
“How can you, with a heart, take from people that don’t have much of anything?” she said.
The FBI recommends researching anyone who contacts you online, never sharing personal information, and never sending money to someone you have only met on the internet.
Anyone who suspects a scam is urged to stop communicating and file a report at ic3.gov.