The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has issued a new warning ahead of Valentine’s Day about the risk of so-called “romance scams.”

Romance scams typically involve dating sites, personal messaging systems and the promise of romance and companionship from online strangers that ultimately leads to the victim being asked for money.

According to a blog post Tuesday from the FTC, romance scammers lure people with phony online profiles.

“Once these fraudsters have people by the heartstrings, they say they need money, often for a medical emergency or some other misfortune,” the FTC explained. “They often claim to be in the military and stationed abroad, which explains why they can’t meet in person. Pretending to need help with travel costs for a long-awaited visit is another common ruse.”

Not insignificant amounts of money are involved as well. On average, a successful romance scam nets $2,600. The FTC estimated that romance scammers managed to get about 20,000 victims in the U.S. last year to send $140 million.

Chris Morales, head of security analytics at Vectra Networks Inc., said that cybercrime is associated with technological tricks and an attacker’s ability to bypass and evade security controls, but it’s just as common to use social engineering tricks that manipulate people’s emotions.

“Defending against technology-based attacks like malware necessitates the use of technology controls, but defending against social engineering becomes a mental game,” he said.

And social engineering is nothing new. “It has been in use for as long as people have existed,” he noted. “A simple form could be a child manipulating a parent to purchase a toy. The intent of social engineering is to influence people into taking action that might not be in their best interest.”

And now cybercriminals have caught on. “Holidays like Valentine’s Day are a particular focal point for social engineering tricks as people tend to have elevated emotions,” Morales said. “As many people feel particularly lonely on this day, any kind of attention would be comforting. It is unfortunate that many online predators manipulate strong emotions to influence people into performing acts such as sending a financial transaction to someone who they have never met.”

Nathan Wenzler, senior director of cybersecurity at Moss Adams LLC, warned that it’s important to take relationships slowly and be on alert if someone asks for money.

“Remember that it’s ok to say ‘no,’ and to be skeptical until you’ve met the person face-to-face and built a stronger trust relationship,” Wenzler advised. “After all, if that person truly is the one, they aren’t likely to put you in this kind of compromising situation in the first place.”

Image: FBI