Scammers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to conduct romance and dating scams on dating apps, with nearly one in three New Zealand dating app users being targeted by such scams.
According to a 2025 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report surveying 1008 adults, romance scams using AI are becoming increasingly prevalent in New Zealand. The report found that 50% of dating app users believed they had conversations written by AI, and nearly one in three Kiwi dating app users had been scam targets. Private investigator Julia Hartley Moore reported that young adults under 35 are particularly susceptible to online romance scams, with some maintaining virtual relationships for years while sending money to fake online 'lovers' who often claim to live in New Zealand but are actually located elsewhere. The Norton report identified approximately seven scam attempts per capita in New Zealand last year, totaling about 35 million scam attempts. Romance scams topped the list of most prevalent scams, followed by catfishing, fake dating sites, visa or immigration scams, and sugar daddy/baby scams. Mark Gorrie, Norton's Asia-Pacific managing director, described this as 'a scam attempt every second.' The report highlights how scammers are leveraging AI technology to automate and scale their deceptive communications with potential victims on dating platforms.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to gain a personal advantage over others such as through cheating, fraud, scams, blackmail or targeted manipulation of beliefs or behavior. Examples include AI-facilitated plagiarism for research or education, impersonating a trusted or fake individual for illegitimate financial benefit, or creating humiliating or sexual imagery.
Human
Due to a decision or action made by humans
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed