Online Romance Scams Cost American Victims Millions

Online romance scams, often initiated through online dating websites, cost American victims over $87 million last year.
According to an article on Wired:

In the UK, a 2012 study by researchers at the University of Leicester and the University of Westminster estimated that 230,000 Britons had already been duped by Internet swindlers whose promises of love inevitably segue into demands for cash.
The victims of these scams often share a particular psychological trait: an exceptional faith in the existence and importance of romantic destiny. Psychologist Monica Whitty, a coauthor of the British study who specializes in romance-scam research, has found that although the people who get fooled by the Yahoo Boys are not necessarily lonelier or more trusting than their peers, they do tend to score highly on tests that measure how much they idealize romantic love. They are thus prone to fall fast and hard for anyone who showers them with exaggerated affection, even if that affection is expressed only via emails and instant messages.
 
[…] Those who are hoodwinked by the Crisis often keep shelling out money until they have nothing left to give, at which point the scammer will either vanish or gleefully reveal their deceit. “There are cases out there that just break your heart,” says Steven Baker, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Midwest Region, which has launched an initiative aimed at preventing online romance scams. “It’s not just the money that’s lost; it’s also emotionally devastating for the people involved. There have been suicides because of this.”

Click here to read the full article on Wired.