Valentine's Day is approaching, and the Philippine National Police is reminding the public that scammers often exploit this season to carry out love scams.

The PNP reported six cases of love scams from January 1 to February 5, 2026. 

In fact, this year’s figure is lower than in 2025, which recorded 54 cases.

Despite the decline, the PNP stresses that this incident is ‘persistent and real’.

Love scams involve fraudsters who take advantage of someone's emotions to extract money.

“Love or romance scams typically begin with online connections where scammers pretend to be foreigners or overseas Filipino workers. They invest time in building emotional attachment, often avoiding video calls, professing love too quickly, and eventually asking for money, travel funds for a supposed meet-up, or sensitive personal details such as bank information, one-time passwords (OTP), or identification cards,” the PNP explains

The red flags that an individual must take as a sign to walk away are: avoiding video calls, asking for money and personal or sensitive information.

The PNP warns to disengage from suspicious individuals to prevent becoming a victim of a scam.

“Authorities are reminding the public never to send money, intimate photos or videos, or personal information to people they have not personally met and fully verified,” according to PNP

Additionally, PNP mentioned that the common targets of scammers are those who are ‘single, widowed, or emotionally vulnerable’.

Scammers want to take advantage of that vulnerability by building an emotional connection. Making you feel that you’re not alone, but the hidden agenda is to deceive you so that they can gain advantage from you.