Colorado Springs residents turning to dating apps this autumn are being urged to remain alert to a growing financial threat tied to the season. App activity tends to climb as temperatures drop, coinciding with what is popularly called "cuffing season" — a shorthand for the annual period when people pursue committed partnerships before the holidays arrive, generally stretching from early fall into winter.
The same seasonal surge that benefits genuine daters also draws bad actors. The heightened interest in relationships during this period creates a window of vulnerability, because fraudsters are aware of the uptick in dating activity and recognize that people motivated by a desire for connection can be easier targets. At its core, a romance scam involves a fraudster cultivating emotional intimacy under romantic pretenses in order to extract money or private information, and such schemes surface across dating apps, social media, gaming platforms, and even professional networking sites.
The financial damage tied to these schemes is both substantial and worsening. The Federal Trade Commission has identified romance scams among the most financially damaging categories of consumer fraud, with reported losses climbing 22 percent in 2025 to reach $1.48 million. Part of what makes these schemes so effective is that perpetrators may spend weeks or even months cultivating a victim's confidence before making any financial request, while tools such as AI-generated images, deepfake video, and cloned voices make fabricated personas harder to see through.
The harm extends well beyond direct monetary loss. Financial demands are not always the end goal; some perpetrators focus instead on harvesting sensitive personal details — among them full names, home addresses, birthdates, employer information, Social Security numbers, and bank account data — understanding that a foundation of trust makes victims far more willing to hand over almost anything.
Consumer advocates outline several concrete steps for verifying a potential match's identity. People-search tools and reverse phone-number lookups can be used to cross-check a match's stated identity against publicly available records, potentially surfacing discrepancies between what the person has claimed and what the records show. Running a reverse image search on profile photos is also recommended, since fraudsters routinely repurpose stolen images and such searches can expose whether those same photos appear on other accounts across the internet. Because maintaining an online-only connection helps conceal a fraudster's true identity, requesting an in-person meeting or a live video call is considered one of the more reliable ways to confirm that a match is who they claim to be.
Certain behavioral patterns should also raise concern. Fraudsters often try to establish an intense emotional bond very quickly, and an unusually strong display of affection in the early stages of contact can be a meaningful warning sign. Pushing to keep a relationship hidden from friends or family is another common tactic, rooted in the reality that people outside the relationship are more likely to spot warning signs — making secrecy a potential indicator that something is being concealed.
Authorities and consumer groups continue to track reported losses as the fall season progresses, and residents who believe they have encountered a romance scam are encouraged to file a report with the Federal Trade Commission.