According to a State of Scams USA report by Iris Powered by Generali and the Global Anti-Scam Alliance, an estimated $64 billion was lost to scams in 2025. One scam making headway again is the romance scams, informs Monmouth Police Department Investigator Josh Kramer:
“It starts really small that they are down on their luck, they need to pay their power bill or having vehicle troubles. Then it starts amounting up and amounting up that they really want to come see you and they need this amount of money. These things get up to $30,000 to $100,000 rather quickly just because of the frequency and the number of problems. People are just looking for compassion and a relationship there.”
If you have fallen victim to any type of a scam, Investigator Kramer encourages reporting the incident immediately.
