In 2022, nearly 70,000 Americans fell in love, losing a record $1.3 billion. This is a 138 percent increase from $547 million in 2021.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, romantic scams are considered the number one type of fraud in the United States.

In recent years, no state has been immune to the victims of the "pig-killing platter," with California being the hardest hit in terms of both the number of victims and the total amount of damage.

Indiana ranked 18th in 2022 with 264 victims of romantic scams. Hoosiers were scammed out of a total of $9.6 million. The average loss per victim is more than $36,000.

The scam comes in many forms, but recently popular ones include scammers posing as celebrities on social media or posing as military personnel abroad.

Be wary of the now-popular 2023 Romance scam, where fraudsters pretend to be rich in cryptocurrency and convince their love targets to invest as well by sending them a link to download an app. The fake app even displays the data as if it were showing your return on investment.

In 2022, cryptocurrency is the most used payment method, accounting for 34%, followed by bank wire payments, accounting for 27%.

The FTC also says the most common lie in relationship "killing is when scammers pretend they or someone close to them is sick, injured or in jail and need money to bail them out."

Other lies commonly used by scammers include that they can teach their victims how to invest, or that they are in the military and far away and need help with an important delivery, or that they have recently made a fortune or gold but need help.