What Does This Mean?
French term for a romance scam: fraud in which someone feigns affection online, often with a fake profile and stolen photos, builds an emotional bond over weeks or months, then invents urgent reasons to ask for money. In French the people behind such schemes are often called « brouteurs ». Consumer-protection and press sources advise breaking contact and keeping the messages as evidence.
REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE
"Elle ne veut jamais passer en visio et demande déjà de l'argent : c'est typique d'une arnaque au sentiment."
LORE & ORIGIN
French Wikipedia describes the pattern: contact on dating sites or social networks with stolen photos, a long emotional build-up, refusal of video calls or meetings, then emergency requests paid by transfer, prepaid cards or cryptocurrency. A Unidivers article dated 19 December 2024 and the Belgian federal police warning about « brouteurs » describe the same sequence. The form « arnaque au sentiment » (also « arnaque aux sentiments » or « arnaque sentimentale ») is the everyday label; no dated source found yet for who first used this exact wording.
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