Financial Institutions and Banks

Romance Fraud Awareness Week – Day 3: “The Money Trail Starts With Trust” (TBC)

Romance fraud is emotional abuse with financial consequences and banks are on the front line.
Behind every fraudulent transfer is a story of manipulation, grooming, and emotional coercion. Victims aren’t making poor decisions. They’re being controlled.

This day calls on banks, building societies, fintech platforms, and payment processors to spot the signs, respond with empathy, and interrupt the abuse, without compounding the trauma.

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What’s Happening on Finance Day:

Toolkit Drop: “What Banks Need to Know About Romance Fraud”

• A practical resource for frontline staff and fraud teams.
• Covers red flags, customer scripts used under coercion, and steps for empathetic intervention.
• Includes language swaps for non-blaming communication.

Includes: “The Coaching Scripts”: What Victims Are Told to Say

• An eye-opening guide to the coaching tactics scammers use to prepare victims for bank questioning.
• Helps teams recognise scripted answers and emotional manipulation, even when a customer insists everything is fine.

And also: Payment Patterns to Watch

• Rounded (gift card) or repeating transfers
• In-country money mule transfers
• Accounts linked to high-risk areas or identities
• Sudden large withdrawals by new or older customers
• Any new transfers to crypto platforms (considering the customer profile sending them)

Hidden Risk: Money Laundering Through Romance Fraud (Blog: Aleks Ring)

Banks are not just facilitators of payments, they are also, often unknowingly, facilitators of money laundering. Romance fraud networks routinely:

• Set up fraudulent accounts using stolen identities or use victims to set up the accounts fro them (saving for the future)
• Use manipulated victims as mules to move criminal funds
• Extract money from investment portfolios, savings, or dormant accounts under false pretences
• Conduct multi-platform laundering between institutions

Some victims are actively coerced into handling money for their abuser. Others have no idea they’re laundering criminal profits.

The importance of collaboration and the role of AI ( Blog: Laura Lehane)

• Sharing risk data is paramount to disrupting fraud
• AI is an important tool to help manage risk and recognise suspicious payments and requests

What banks must do:

• Flag unusual drawdowns, transfers to high-risk areas, or uncharacteristic movement in long-established accounts
• Improve internal data-sharing where known fraud signals exist
• Collaborate across institutions to trace, freeze, and block mule accounts, not just respond to final-stage transactions
• Recognise that victim-facilitated laundering is often the result of psychological abuse, not criminal intent

Money laundering in romance fraud isn’t sophisticated, it’s hidden behind emotional manipulation. That makes prevention everyone’s job. in romance fraud, the bank is often the last stop before the harm becomes irreversible.

Idea Drop: “What If Banks Led the Prevention?”

• A best practice idea drop encouraging banks and building societies to think beyond compliance. What proactive disruption could look like, from flag delays to progressive in-app awareness nudges.

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Webinar: “Empathy vs. Exposure – Balancing Security and Support”

Panel with fraud prevention leaders, victim advocates, and trauma experts. Discusses practical changes banks can make without compromising due diligence (CIFAS)