Your Advocates Against Romance Scammers

Kathy Waters is a leading expert on online romance scams. She has over 4,000 volunteer hours helping identity theft victims and those targeted by scammers. She advises media outlets, congressional staff, international agencies, and Meta on the issue and has directly engaged with Facebook’s safety and security team. Kathy’s advocacy includes meeting with key officials in Washington, D.C., including the Federal Trade Commission and Pentagon.

Her involvement began when a family friend was scammed by someone impersonating a military general. This led her to co-found Advocating Against Romance Scammers (AARS) with Colonel Bryan Denny (Ret.), whose identity had also been stolen. Kathy is committed to raising awareness and driving change to combat these scams.

As a collaborator with multiple in the fraud-fighting community, Kathy leads efforts to unite stakeholders in combating organized crime and improving victim support. Through global partnerships, she introduces and helps them implement strategies for victim assistance and holding perpetrators accountable.

Kathy’s work in protecting individuals from online fraud and dismantling criminal networks continues to make a significant impact worldwide.

Bryan Denny, a founding member and Chairman of Advocating Against Romance Scammers, has a distinguished background as a retired U.S. Army Colonel with 26 years of service. In 2016, his identity was compromised when his photos were unlawfully used to create numerous fraudulent profiles across various platforms, making him an unwitting symbol of military romance scams. Bryan experiences the fallout weekly of being an identity theft victim.

Bryan is deeply committed to combatting online fraud by raising awareness among potential victims and advocating for legislative changes to curb organized crime online.
Bryan’s advocacy efforts have garnered international attention, as evidenced by his appearances on prominent media outlets such as Four Corners Australia, Nightline, The Mel Robbins Show, and Inside Edition, in addition to being featured in leading publications including the New York Times. His tireless work in spotlighting the prevalence and impact of romance scams has resonated widely, reaching and informing countless individuals.

Julie Golub is a consulting firm Director with Protiviti and has more than 15 years of financial services experience. She is part of the Regulatory Risk team located in New York, New York, and her knowledge and expertise focus on consumer bank regulation, with an emphasis on compliance management related to retail banking, specifically consumer protection and Anti-Money Laundering laws. 

Julie’s academic background in psychology fuels her deep interest in comprehending the multifaceted strategies of romance scammers. She recognizes the intersection of social media, dating services, financial platforms, payment systems, cybersecurity, and various communication channels as integral components of perpetrators, tactics.

Julie’s experience and commitment to Advocating Against Romance Scammers (“AARS”) underscores a holistic approach to combating fraud while addressing victims’ emotional and financial impact.

April is a distinguished radio news anchor and reporter at 102.3 KRMG, a prominent news and talk station based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her career commenced in television news reporting, where she specialized in covering various criminal activities, including scams, amassing two decades of experience in the field.

Despite her extensive background, April faced a profoundly personal challenge when her mother became a victim of a romance scam. Concurrently battling ovarian cancer, April’s mother tragically lost $350,000 to scammers before her passing in March 2020. Seeking solace and solutions, April turned to Advocating Against Romance Scammers.

Motivated by her personal experience and driven by a commitment to prevent similar tragedies, April now dedicates her efforts to educating the public through the Scammer Stories podcast. As host, she interviews experts and shares compelling narratives from scam victims, aiming to raise awareness and empower others with knowledge to combat online fraud effectively.

Roger L. Campbell has over 30 years of law enforcement experience, beginning in 1991 as a police officer in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He became a detective in 1996, specializing in juvenile violent crimes, before joining the FBI in 1997 as a Special Agent. After training at Quantico, he worked on complex fraud investigations at the Washington, D.C. Field Division and contributed to evidence collection at the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks.

Promoted to Supervisory Special Agent in 2007, Roger led investigations into terrorist financing and cyber intrusions at FBI Headquarters. He later returned to field operations, investigating ATM skimming, romance fraud, and business email compromises. He retired from the FBI in October 2019, concluding a distinguished career in law enforcement.

Janice Hart, CA, is a founding board member of AARS and a dedicated director with a strong focus on advocacy and community impact. She spent 18 years in juvenile delinquency prevention before becoming Assistant City Manager for External Programs in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Currently, Janice is the Director of Reputation Management at Electronic Caregiver, Inc. (ECG), a leader in health technology. In this role, she serves as the primary contact for victims of romance scams involving her CEO’s image, demonstrating her empathy and dedication to helping others.

Janice’s efforts to combat online fraud began after she uncovered a network of scammers exploiting her CEO’s identity, resulting in losses exceeding six million dollars. Motivated to help, she earned certification as a Credentialed Advocate (CA) specializing in Identity Theft/Financial Crimes and remains an active member of the National Organization for Victim Advocacy. She continues to fight online fraud and support victims of financial crimes, particularly romance scams.

Advocating Against Romance Scammers (AARS), is honored to be a subject matter expert with the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO), which groups 35 NGOs, academics, and citizen investigators working to push organized crime off the internet. ACCO aims to reduce online crime’s scale and reform the laws governing tech, providing a path to justice for folks harmed online. Working on subject matters such as the illegal wildlife trade, drug trafficking, romance scams, human trafficking, and many others, ACCO prides itself in producing original research and maintaining a bipartisan approach to reform.  Please visit ACCO’s website to learn more about the alliance and fight for platform safety.

Advocating Against Romance Scammers is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Better Business Bureau Institute for Marketplace Trust.

Both organizations are committed to ensuring consumer safety and trust and share the objective of enhancing education and raising awareness about fraud. AARS has endorsed the Scam Tracker Tool offered by BBBI.

This partnership signifies a significant step forward in our collective efforts to combat fraudulent activities and protect consumers. Another excellent step for fraud awareness! 

Chainabuse and AARS have joined forces to better support victims when it comes to reporting crypto crimes, keeping their private information, well, private, and offering free informational services to those who have become victim of the malicious crime. According to Chainabuse they “are powered by TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence company that builds data intelligence risk and compliance solutions to detect crypto fraud and financial crime in digital assets.”  Crypto scams are here to stay. We must do our part as a team to help deliver the best assistance we can.

Cybercrime Support Network (CSN) and Advocating Against Romance Scammers (AARS) have joined forces for the safety and security of platform users. CSN is a widely known non-profit organization that focuses on all divisions of online crimes and provides resources and tools to help defend against cybercrime. As mentioned on the cite of CSN, and as a public-private collaboration, “CSN supports individuals and small businesses through FightCybercrime.org, a resource database for those affected by cybercrime and online fraud, and ScamSpotter.org, a website to help identify scams and stop fraudsters.” AARS looks forward to working with CSN to help bring greater education to all who seek information and assistance in the name of romance scams.

Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and Advocating Against Romance Scammers have partnered to help give identity theft victims additional services one may need when becoming a victim of identity fraud. Romance scams have several victims; one is the innocent men and women whose photos and information have been stolen and used for financial gain. ITRC is a “non-profit organization established to minimize risk and mitigate the impact of identity compromise.” An incredible tool ITRC offers in victim assistance is a live chat. A tool that can also be found on law enforcement sites also partnering with ITRC. We are excited to build this relationship!

AARS is proud to partner with the International Association of Financial Crimes Investigators (IAFCI). Consumer awareness is a top priority for IAFCI. They provide information on mail fraud, cyber safety for adults and children, sextortion, identity theft  and much more!

Training with certifications, conferences with training, and their own podcast that helps to share even more awareness and prevention than already being accomplished across their site are also all offered. AARS is excited to work on future projects and collaborations with this outstanding organization!

Advocating Against Romance Scammers has become supporting Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) members. GASA is provides “hands-on tools for consumers and law enforcement, facilitating knowledge sharing, organizing research, supporting the development of (legal) best practices, and offering training and education.”  We cannot make a change on our own, and GASA understands this fully.  We will strive to bring forth the best assistance and education to every platform users globally…together!