Starling Bank launches romance scam detection feature

Starling Bank has launched a new AI-powered scam feature that can detect romance scams and prevent victims from transferring money.

The scam intelligence AI agent is part of Starling Assistant, launched by the bank in March 2026, which lets customers use voice or natural language to ask questions about their money and plan actions like transfers and budgeting. 

For example, a customer could say they’ve been asked to transfer £3,000 for a plane ticket for their new partner. Starling Assistant will detect the initial signs of a romance scam and ask a series of questions, such as why their partner can’t fund it themselves, where they met, and how long they’ve been in a relationship.

Following these questions, the AI agent will advise the customer on whether it’s likely to be a scam, and suggest a call with the bank’s support team to discuss further.

The agent can also detect ten other types of scams including pension, deepfake and investment scams. 

Starling has rolled out this feature to its five million customers as new UK Finance (UKF) data show fraud threats are proliferating rapidly. 

Britons lost £576.4m to authorised push payment (APP) fraud last year according to UKF, an increase of 19%. Romance fraud losses increased 23% and investment fraud losses soared by 40% year-on-year. 

The new feature was inspired by the ‘Tinder Swindler’ survivor and fraud advocate, Cecilie Fjellhøy, who lost nearly £200,000 to a sophisticated romance scam and whom Starling sought advice from on this feature.

“Fraud must be stopped at source, but without effective collaboration from the social media platforms where most scams originate, it’s up to individuals and their banks to keep the scammers at bay,” says Bernadette Smith, chief customer and banking officer at Starling. 

“At Starling, we’re working behind the scenes to identify threats and we’re empowering our customers with tools to protect themselves.”