The Santa Clara County deputy district attorney has made it her mission to fight back against these scams and the people executing them.

Investigators found scammers involved in human trafficking.

Nearly half of the scams originated on social media.

Business email compromise again proved costliest, at $2.4 billion, according to the bureau's Internet Crime Complaint Center.

The FTC says that of the $547 million in romance scams reported in 2021, $139 million in losses involved cryptocurrency transactions.

Facebook is playing a large role.

But cryptocurrency still poses a big challenge.

The sting also intercepted $27 million in illicit funds.

Swindlers have defrauded victims out of $1.4 million with the romance scam.

The Nigerian national also must pay back nearly $900,000 to victims, a judge ordered.