Romance fraud took about 551 million kronor in Sweden in 2025, up 48%
Swedish police estimate that romance fraud brought in about 551 million kronor in 2025, up from 372 million kronor in 2024. The estimate is built from crimes reported to the police, so fraud nobody reported is not in it.
Romance fraud, where someone fakes a relationship online to get money out of you, brought in about 551 million kronor in Sweden in 2025, according to an estimate by Polisen, the Swedish Police Authority. Its national fraud center (Nationellt bedrägericentrum) put the 2024 figure at 372 million kronor, so on Polisen’s numbers the rise is 48%. The report, published on April 13, 2026, also says 57 romance fraud victims each lost more than 1 million kronor, about 172 million kronor between them.
The figure is an estimate. For each type of fraud, the report multiplies an average amount per case by the number of crimes reported to the police in that category. It counts 45,106 fraud reports in 2025 across 56 crime codes, and gives a margin of about 5% per fraud type. Only reported crime goes into the model, so money lost by people who never went to the police is missing from the total.
Romance fraud made up about 10% of all fraud proceeds, which the report puts at 5.7 billion kronor for 2025, down 10% from 2024. Fraud as a whole shrank while romance fraud grew. The report counts money. A bigger total does not by itself mean more victims.
On its advice page, Polisen tells people to run an image search on profile photos, to be careful about sending money to someone they have never met, and to report fraud on 114 14, the police number for non-urgent matters. A flattering photo of the real person is kittenfishing. A stranger’s photo with a money problem attached is fraud, and the police want to hear about it. What the law says in the US and the UK, and where to report there, is on is catfishing illegal.