George Mason and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults

The term "catfishing" entered mainstream use with the release of the eponymous 2010 documentary investigating the practice of creating fake online personas, frequently to scam someone. Today, AI is pushing this practice to a frightening new level, with the prospect of older adults falling for what are called "romance scams."

Sanchari Das, an assistant professor in George Mason University's Department of Information Sciences and Technology, and Ruba Abu-Salma, an associate professor in the department of computer science at King's College London, received a $100,000 Google Academic Research Awardto help keep older adults safe online. Their project, Scammed by Love: Toward Mitigating AI-Facilitated Romance Scams Against Older Adults Through Empirical and Cross-National Studies, will investigate the prevalence of such scams targeting older adults and will create educational tools to help them safely navigate dating apps.

The researchers will conduct a multi-national study spanning 13 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Das, who has published research on older adults and their online dating habits, said, "We think about older adults in terms of health care needs, but we don't think about dating and romance. I learned that a majority ofolder-adult scams come from scam dating, and the victims cannot even share that it happened with their support networks, like their children, because it would be such a taboo and embarrassing thing to share." Das added that an estimated $3 billion is lost each year in the United States to romance scams across all age groups, based on reported figures. "And that's only what's being reported." Das is concerned that while romance scams are among the most prevalent forms of fraud affecting older adults, this population remains understudied in this context.

With roughly 12 percent of Americans over 70 having used a dating app or site, there is significant exposure for financial harm. Given the rapid advances in AI-generated images, video, audio, and simulated emotional expression, these attacks are increasing. One news story(of many) tells of a UK resident who scammed at least 10 female victims over 11 years out of 100,000 British pounds.

Abu-Salma, who has also published research on older adults and other at-risk groups, noted that according to a recent 2025 study by Lloyds Bank, "Individuals aged 55 to 64 are the most targeted age group, accounting for 20 percent of romance scam victims, followed by those aged 65 to 74, who represent18 percent of cases."

In response to these risks, Das and Abu-Salma's project will proceed in three phases. First, they will analyze data from focus groups and surveys of older adults in countries with high dating-app adoption. Second, they will develop educational safety materials. Third, they will hold in-person community workshops in the United States and the UK, partnering with older adult communities to refine and disseminate these materials. The team will work with organizations worldwide to share their findings online.

Das said she is excited about this collaboration and grateful to receive such highly competitive Google Academic Research Award in the Trust, Safety, Security, and Privacy research domain, noting, "We all know about deepfakes, but the bigger issue is that scammers are no longer just swapping faces. They are creating entirely new personas that feel real, so you may not even question whether the person you are talking to exists." She added, "Our goal is to equip older adults with simple tools and support so they can connect online with confidence."

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