What different kinds of support can offer
The studies cover professional support, face-to-face peer groups, online forums, and a proposed recovery plan for people with acquired brain injury (Cantin et al., 2025b; Chew et al., 2025; Cross, 2019; Cross et al., 2016).
| Focus | What the studies show | What remains uncertain |
|---|---|---|
| Professional support Victim accounts in romance-scam and broader online-fraud studies | People described reassurance and advice as helpful, but some reported disappointing counseling when practitioners did not understand romance fraud (Cross et al., 2016; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015). | These accounts do not establish which forms of professional support produce lasting recovery (Cross et al., 2016; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015). |
| Face-to-face peer groups Exploratory interview case study | Participants valued sharing with peers who understood, reporting empowerment and reduced isolation, although some found attending groups anxiety‑provoking (Cross, 2019). | The small interview sample did not include everyone in the group, so favorable accounts may not represent all members’ experiences (Cross, 2019). |
| Online mutual help Qualitative analysis of discussion forums | Forum users shared their stories, sought advice, and offered guidance to others who were questioning an online relationship (Cantin et al., 2025a). | Observing these exchanges does not establish their benefits and drawbacks; the authors explicitly called for systematic assessment (Cantin et al., 2025b). |
| Adapted recovery plans Recovery support design with participant input | A proposed recovery plan developed with input from scam survivors with acquired brain injury addressed online safety and coping with financial losses, emotional distress, and changes in relationships and daily life. It could be adapted to individual needs (Chew et al., 2025). | The plan’s effectiveness had not been determined, so its design should not be mistaken for evidence that it improves recovery (Chew et al., 2025). |
Discovery does not end the harm
Learning that a relationship was fraudulent can leave problems that a financial response alone cannot address. A scoping review, which mapped existing research, described victims grieving the lost relationship, trying to cope, and changing how they viewed future relationships (Coluccia et al., 2020).
In Whitty and Buchanan’s 2015 interview study, few participants appeared to be coping with the trauma and stress. Some had been scammed five years before their interview. Most felt unable to trust others and feared new romantic relationships. These accounts show that distress can persist, not how often that happens among all victims (Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Fear can also have practical consequences. A separate study described people changing their identities or wanting to move to regain a sense of safety; some lacked the resources to make such changes. The authors noted that little was known about whether victims’ attempts to reduce fear actually worked (Cross & Lee, 2022).
Why counseling accounts differ
In the 2015 romance-scam study, participants who sought counseling described practitioners who had not heard of the crime and said they could offer little help. Many participants found the research interview helpful because they could disclose the experience fully and feel accepted without ridicule. That was an experience of being heard, not a test of therapy (Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Professional support was not uniformly described as unhelpful. In a broader online-fraud study, people who spoke with counselors or support workers reported overwhelmingly positive experiences. They valued being able to tell someone what had happened and receive reassurance and advice (Cross et al., 2016).
Interpretation. Prepare support providers to understand romance scams and respond without ridicule, with relevant reassurance and advice. The contrasting accounts suggest these are useful priorities, but they do not establish whether such preparation improves recovery (Cross et al., 2016; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Peer research shows both connection and discomfort
Cross’s exploratory case study used face-to-face interviews to seek perspectives before joining a support group and at least 12 months after participation. The first round involved six people in July 2014. All participants had experienced romance fraud, making this a study of a particular group rather than fraud support in general (Cross, 2019).
One participant described the value of sharing with someone who understood and challenging the feeling of having been foolish. Others described a secure space for disclosure. Yet some found attendance frightening or anxiety-provoking. Because not every member was interviewed, these accounts cannot establish how the whole group experienced participation (Cross, 2019).
Interpretation. Online forums allow a different kind of participation: people can read others’ accounts without posting their own. An analysis selected 1,000 conversations by post length, views, and replies, then identified themes in the discussions. Because the sample favored those features, it should not be taken to represent every user, including those who read without responding (Cantin et al., 2025b).
Practical recovery is more than recovering funds
In “Falling into a Black Hole,” a report on cyberscam survivors and their support networks, practical support included help contacting banks and police. The authors also linked positive social support with emotional recovery. These observations describe helpful support, without establishing which service model works best (Cazanis et al., 2025).
A 2021 community project in Indonesia approached financial rebuilding through social media use and low-capital business creation. It aimed to restore online confidence after love-scam losses. The report described several new businesses, including a participant’s bracelet business ready for social-media marketing (Esfandari & Satria Putri, 2021).
Interpretation. Reports of new small businesses indicate activity but do not demonstrate sustained income or complete emotional recovery, since many victims remained affected by trauma (Esfandari & Satria Putri, 2021).
Protection and recovery can pull in different directions
Research involving people with acquired brain injury and their close contacts illustrates a difficult tradeoff. Protective strategies were described as preventing financial loss without preventing emotional harm from further scams. Stricter practices could also be difficult to implement and lead to family conflict (Gould et al., 2021).
In that study, paid caregivers and mental-health professionals helped with disengagement, accepting that a scam had occurred, and reducing shame. Some efforts did not change denial. These findings concern cyberscams among people with acquired brain injury; they should not be assumed to describe every romance-scam survivor (Gould et al., 2021).
In a later study developing recovery support for people with acquired brain injury, participants described sharing experiences as validating and showing they were not alone. This offers a different perspective from the earlier accounts of restrictive protection and family conflict: it describes how participation felt, rather than whether the proposed plan improved recovery (Chew et al., 2025; Gould et al., 2021).
What support teams can change
Interpretation. Use the suggestions below to plan support, then check what changes for the people using it. A plan still needs evaluation before its benefits can be established (Cazanis et al., 2025; Chew et al., 2025).
Ask about more than money
Include questions about trust, relationships, fear, and difficulty navigating reporting systems when reviewing support needs. Do not use money recovered or payments stopped as the sole sign of recovery: the studies describe emotional harm that can persist alongside financial protection (Cazanis et al., 2025; Cross & Lee, 2022; Gould et al., 2021; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Make peer participation a choice
Consider letting people read peer accounts without requiring disclosure, and ask whether participation feels distressing. Forum research describes indirect support through reading, while a group participant described intense anxiety. These observations suggest choices worth offering, not a tested way to improve recovery (Cantin et al., 2025b; Cross, 2019).
Separate satisfaction from recovery
When evaluating a service, distinguish feeling heard from later changes in distress, everyday functioning, or exposure to another scam. Track the intended outcomes over time and seek a credible comparison rather than treating positive comments, attendance, or a completed plan as proof of lasting benefit (Cantin et al., 2025b; Chew et al., 2025; Gujarathi et al., 2026; Shepherd & Szymkowiak, 2026).
How will unwanted effects be noticed?
Before adopting a support model, specify how people can report distress or family conflict and who will respond, since protective measures can cause family tension and group participation can provoke anxiety (Cross, 2019; Gould et al., 2021).
About the evidence
This explanation draws on selected sources from RSRC’s full synthesis. The full research record, its source list and version history remain available below.
Scope, preparation and limitations
AI prepared this explanation from synthesis version 67, then performed separate editorial grading and source-support checks. The automated grades assess communication; they are not reader-test results or measures of scientific certainty. No human or expert content review of this explanation is recorded.
The full synthesis preserves 31 publication records and 120 evidence statements. These counts do not establish the number of independent studies or the strength of a finding. Practical implications are editorial interpretations, with limitations explained alongside the evidence.
RSRC methodologySources cited in this explanation (13)
Links open the publication record or original work. Journal access may vary.
- Cantin, P.-M., Ream, F., & Dupont, B. (2025a). CHAPTER 10 The Online Mutual Help Practices of Romance Fraud Victims. University of Ottawa Press eBooks, 179–194. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780776645636-014
- Cantin, P.-M., Ream, F., & Dupont, B. (2025b). The Online Mutual Help Practices of Romance Fraud Victims. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press eBooks, 179–194. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.37022854.16
- Cazanis, A., Carminati, J.-Y., Chew, K., Cross, C., Ponsford, J., & Gould, K. R. (2025). “Falling into a Black Hole”: A Qualitative Exploration of the Lived Experiences of Cyberscam Victim-Survivors and Their Social Support Networks. Victims & Offenders, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2025.2481267
- Chew, K. A., Ponsford, J. L., & Gould, K. R. (2025). “This is a lifesaver”: co-designing a novel cyberscam psychosocial recovery intervention framework for people with acquired brain injury. Disability and Rehabilitation, 47(19), 5054–5062. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2025.2457511
- Coluccia, A., Pozza, A., Ferretti, F., Carabellese, F., Masti, A., & Gualtieri, G. (2020). Online Romance Scams: Relational Dynamics and Psychological Characteristics of the Victims and Scammers. A Scoping Review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 16(1), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017902016010024
- Cross, C. (2019). “You’re not alone”: the use of peer support groups for fraud victims. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29(5), 672–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2019.1590279
- Cross, C., & Lee, M. (2022). Exploring Fear of Crime for Those Targeted by Romance Fraud. Victims & Offenders, 17(5), 735–755. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2021.2018080
- Cross, C., Richards, K., & Smith, R. (2016). The reporting experiences and support needs of victims of online fraud. Australian Institute of Criminology eBooks. https://doi.org/10.52922/ti148355
- Esfandari, D. A., & Satria Putri, B. P. (2021). E-Marketing: Utilizing Social Media and Marketplaces to Start Businesses for Online Love Scam Victims in Indonesia. Charity, 4(2a), 10. https://doi.org/10.25124/charity.v4i2a.4236
- Gould, K. R., Carminati, J.-Y. J., & Ponsford, J. L. (2021). “They just say how stupid I was for being conned”. Cyberscams and acquired brain injury: A qualitative exploration of the lived experience of survivors and close others. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 33(2), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2021.2016447
- Gujarathi, P., Verma, S., & Nair, V. V. (2026). Pig Butchering Scams as Cyber-Enabled Financial Crime: A Scoping Review of Dimensions, Modus Operandi, and Victim-Offender Dynamics. Deviant Behavior, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2026.2677691
- Shepherd, L. A., & Szymkowiak, A. (2026). Romance Scams. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cyberpsychology, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52643-5_173-1
- Whitty, M. T., & Buchanan, T. (2015). The online dating romance scam: The psychological impact on victims – both financial and non-financial. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 16(2), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895815603773
Full synthesis and revision history
Download the full synthesis PDF
Across the reviewed evidence, recovery from relationship-based online scams is multi-dimensional and processual: victims describe overlapping emotional work, practical tasks, and relational rebuilding rather than a single end-state. Common psychological consequences include grief, shame, self-blame, trauma-like distress, persistent fear, and long-term difficulty trusting new partners; these harms often coexist with concrete needs for financial advice, legal aid, and asset-recovery assistance. Empirical studies and reviews repeatedly report a scarcity or insufficiency of dedicated victim-support services; where supports exist, combined practical help (banks, police, financial/legal advice) plus nonjudgmental emotional validation is described as most helpful. Peer and online mutual-help practices provide emotional validation, practical fraud-identification advice, and identity-reconstruction benefits for many participants, but the evidence is descriptive and purposive and does not establish efficacy or generalizable outcomes. Special populations (older adults, people with acquired brain injury, trafficked survivors) have distinct recovery needs; small qualitative and mixed-method studies document additional vulnerabilities and recommend multi-sector aftercare but do not provide evaluated, generalizable interventions. Methodologically, the corpus is dominated by qualitative and descriptive designs, forum-analyses, administrative report coding, scoping and narrative reviews, and a few large administrative-case analyses; authors consistently call for longitudinal, comparative, and evaluative research on recovery pathways, service models, and revictimization prevention. Overall, recommended components of recovery—trauma-informed psychological care, integrated financial and legal support, peer validation, and tailored planning for vulnerable subgroups—are recurring but remain insufficiently tested in controlled or longitudinal designs (Cantin et al., 2025a, 2025b; Coluccia et al., 2020; Cross, 2022; Cross et al., 2018; Cross & Lee, 2022; Gould et al., 2021; Gujarathi et al., 2026; Kassem & Carter, 2023; C. Wang, 2022; F. Wang, 2024; Yosiandra & Sakariah, 2024).
Multidimensional character of recovery
Multiple qualitative studies and scoping reviews report that recovery from relationship-based online scams involves overlapping emotional, practical, and relational tasks rather than a single end-state; post-discovery reactions documented across studies include grieving, self-blame, coping attempts, support from others, and changed expectations for future relationships (Coluccia et al., 2020; C. Wang, 2022).
Authors report that many victims experience long-term inability to trust others and changed expectations for relationships after discovery, and that coping trajectories are heterogeneous—some victims disengage and later seek supports while others maintain contact or financial transfers despite warnings (C. Wang, 2022; Whitty, 2013; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Psychological and counseling needs
Across reviews and empirical studies, trauma-informed psychological care and nonjudgmental therapeutic spaces are repeatedly recommended to address grief, shame, guilt, post-traumatic symptoms, and trust-rebuilding as central components of recovery planning for romance-scam victims and their families (Gauci & Vella, 2025; Kassem & Carter, 2023; Sorinmade et al., 2025).
Evidence about counseling outcomes is mixed: some victims described formal counselling as ineffective when practitioners lacked knowledge of the crime, while other studies report victims who spoke with professional counsellors or support workers experienced overwhelmingly positive outcomes, including reassurance and practical advice; qualitative reports also indicate that full disclosure in a validating research interview was experienced as helpful by many participants (Cross et al., 2016; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Practical, legal, and economic aftercare
Victims commonly seek legal redress and restitution as part of recovery strategies; doctrinal and practice-focused papers identify statutory provisions for confiscation of proceeds and restitution in some jurisdictions but note practical barriers and the absence of automatic compensation mechanisms (Adnan, 2025; Bimantari et al., 2023).
Small community and case reports describe integrative, recovery-oriented interventions—combining psychological, economic and legal supports or offering e‑marketing/business-start training—as practical pathways to rebuild economic confidence, though these reports are descriptive and lack controlled outcome evaluation (Esfandari & Satria Putri, 2021; Nakhma'ussolikhah et al., 2025).
Peer support and online mutual-help
Forum analyses and peer-support studies identify three principal functions of mutual-help: emotional validation (reducing isolation and self-blame), practical fraud identification/education, and awareness-raising; many victims report that telling their story in safe spaces was experienced as helpful and identity-rebuilding (Cantin et al., 2025a, 2025b).
Mutual-help research is predominantly descriptive and purposive: authors note that selected forum threads and small peer-group samples were used for in-depth analysis and they recommend systematic evaluation to assess benefits, shortcomings, and efficacy of online mutual-help practices for fraud victims (Cantin et al., 2025b; Cross, 2019).
Special populations and coerced victim-offender overlap
People with acquired brain injury (ABI) and their close others report that restrictive financial controls or permission requirements can limit monetary loss but do not necessarily prevent emotional harm; professional supports (paid carers, psychologists, psychiatrists) were described as assisting disengagement and emotional recovery, though recognition and acceptance of the scam could remain difficult for some survivors (Gould et al., 2021).
Research on trafficking into pig-butchering operations documents coerced participation and recommends multi-sector aftercare (psychological counselling, vocational training, safe-migration support) for escapees, but this evidence is descriptive and not yet supported by longitudinal evaluations of recovery outcomes (Franceschini et al., 2024; Gujarathi et al., 2026; F. Wang, 2024).
Co-designed psychosocial recovery frameworks for people with ABI address cybersafety and adjustment to financial, emotional, relationship, and lifestyle impacts and are reported as flexible and validating by participants, but tailored psychosocial treatments for ABI survivors were not identified and the frameworks’ effectiveness has not been determined (Chew et al., 2025).
Methodological patterns, limitations, and evidence gaps
The reviewed corpus is dominated by qualitative, descriptive studies, forum analyses, scoping and narrative reviews, and analyses of administrative reporting datasets; these designs provide rich first‑person accounts and thematic mapping but leave unanswered questions about prevalence, causality, and intervention effectiveness (Gujarathi et al., 2026; Kassem & Carter, 2023; C. Wang, 2022; F. Wang, 2026; Whitty, 2013; Whitty & Buchanan, 2015).
Authors consistently identify major evidence gaps: a shortage of evaluated, longitudinal research on recovery trajectories and support models; insufficiently professional or available victim support services in many settings; and a need for targeted studies on fear-of-crime harms, revictimization prevention, and tailored interventions for vulnerable subgroups (Cross, 2022; Cross et al., 2018; Cross & Lee, 2022; Gujarathi et al., 2026; Shepherd & Szymkowiak, 2026).
Research priorities and practice-aligned recommendations
Priority research questions identified in the corpus include longitudinal evaluation of recovery trajectories and aftercare models, rigorous assessment of mutual-help benefits and harms, evaluation of interventions for special populations (ABI, older adults, trafficked survivors, minors), and empirically testing whether concepts such as flow or addiction explain continued victim engagement (Amirkhani et al., 2026; Cantin et al., 2025a, 2025b; Cazanis et al., 2025; Gujarathi et al., 2026; Whitty, 2013).
In practice, multiple reviews and analyses recommend integrated victim support that combines trauma-informed mental-health care with practical financial and legal assistance, early referral pathways, and nonjudgmental peer validation; these recommendations are recurrent in the literature though the evidence base for evaluated, controlled effectiveness of such integrated models is currently limited (Burrell, 2025; Kassem & Carter, 2023; L. Burton & D. (Vickerson) Moore, 2024; F. Wang & Kelsay, 2025; Yosiandra & Sakariah, 2024).
References
- Adnan, I. (2025). A Juridical Review of Love Scam Crimes from the Perspective of Criminal Law and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law in Indonesia. AL-BALAD : Jurnal Hukum Tata Negara dan Politik Islam, 5(1), 55–71. https://doi.org/10.59259/ab.v5i1.246 Publication record
- Amirkhani, S., Alizadeh, M. F., Randall, D., Stevens, G., & Zytko, D. (2026). My Parents Expectations Were Overwhelming: Online Dating Romance Scams Targeting Minors in Iran Through Exploitation of Parental Pressure. Publication Server of Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences (Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences). https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2601.16321 Publication record
- Bimantari, N., Kusnadi, S. A., & Purwaningtyas, F. D. (2023). Legal Protection for Victims of Love Scam Crimes. Jurnal Ilmu Hukum Wijaya Putra, 1(2), 173–188. https://doi.org/10.38156/jihwp.v1i2.130 Publication record
- Burrell, D. (2025). Mental Health Impacts of Cybercrime. International Conference on Cyber Warfare and Security, 20(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.34190/iccws.20.1.3349 Publication record
- Cantin, P.-M., Ream, F., & Dupont, B. (2025a). CHAPTER 10 The Online Mutual Help Practices of Romance Fraud Victims. University of Ottawa Press eBooks, 179–194. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780776645636-014 Publication record
- Cantin, P.-M., Ream, F., & Dupont, B. (2025b). The Online Mutual Help Practices of Romance Fraud Victims. Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa | University of Ottawa Press eBooks, 179–194. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.37022854.16 Publication record
- Cazanis, A., Carminati, J.-Y., Chew, K., Cross, C., Ponsford, J., & Gould, K. R. (2025). “Falling into a Black Hole”: A Qualitative Exploration of the Lived Experiences of Cyberscam Victim-Survivors and Their Social Support Networks. Victims & Offenders, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2025.2481267 Publication record
- Chew, K. A., Ponsford, J. L., & Gould, K. R. (2025). “This is a lifesaver”: co-designing a novel cyberscam psychosocial recovery intervention framework for people with acquired brain injury. Disability and Rehabilitation, 47(19), 5054–5062. https://doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2025.2457511 Publication record
- Coluccia, A., Pozza, A., Ferretti, F., Carabellese, F., Masti, A., & Gualtieri, G. (2020). Online Romance Scams: Relational Dynamics and Psychological Characteristics of the Victims and Scammers. A Scoping Review. Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health, 16(1), 24–35. https://doi.org/10.2174/1745017902016010024 Publication record
- Cross, C. (2019). “You’re not alone”: the use of peer support groups for fraud victims. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 29(5), 672–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2019.1590279 Publication record
- Cross, C. (2022). Meeting the Challenges of Fraud in a Digital World. The Handbook of Security, 217–238. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91735-7_11 Publication record
- Cross, C., Dragiewicz, M., & Richards, K. (2018). Understanding Romance Fraud: Insights From Domestic Violence Research. The British Journal of Criminology, 58(6), 1303–1322. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azy005 Publication record
- Cross, C., & Lee, M. (2022). Exploring Fear of Crime for Those Targeted by Romance Fraud. Victims & Offenders, 17(5), 735–755. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564886.2021.2018080 Publication record
- Cross, C., Richards, K., & Smith, R. (2016). The reporting experiences and support needs of victims of online fraud. Australian Institute of Criminology eBooks. https://doi.org/10.52922/ti148355 Publication record
- Esfandari, D. A., & Satria Putri, B. P. (2021). E-Marketing: Utilizing Social Media and Marketplaces to Start Businesses for Online Love Scam Victims in Indonesia. Charity, 4(2a), 10. https://doi.org/10.25124/charity.v4i2a.4236 Publication record
- Franceschini, I., Li, L., Hu, Y., & Bo, M. (2024). A new type of victim? Profiling survivors of modern slavery in the online scam industry in Southeast Asia. Trends in Organized Crime. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-024-09552-2 Publication record
- Gauci, C., & Vella, M. G. (2025). Romance Fraud: Its Repercussions on Victims’ Wellbeing. Women & Criminal Justice, 1–37. https://doi.org/10.1080/08974454.2025.2600304 Publication record
- Gould, K. R., Carminati, J.-Y. J., & Ponsford, J. L. (2021). “They just say how stupid I was for being conned”. Cyberscams and acquired brain injury: A qualitative exploration of the lived experience of survivors and close others. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, 33(2), 325–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011.2021.2016447 Publication record
- Gujarathi, P., Verma, S., & Nair, V. V. (2026). Pig Butchering Scams as Cyber-Enabled Financial Crime: A Scoping Review of Dimensions, Modus Operandi, and Victim-Offender Dynamics. Deviant Behavior, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639625.2026.2677691 Publication record
- Kassem, R., & Carter, E. (2023). Mapping romance fraud research – a systematic review. Journal of Financial Crime, 31(4), 974–992. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfc-06-2023-0160 Publication record
- L. Burton, D. S., & D. (Vickerson) Moore, D. P. (2024). Pig Butchering in Cybersecurity: A Modern Social Engineering Threat. SocioEconomic Challenges, 8(3), 46–60. https://doi.org/10.61093/sec.8(3).46-60.2024 Publication record
- Nakhma'ussolikhah, Subasman, I., & Marliani, L. (2025). Reality Counseling Approach to Increasing Career Woman Awareness (Case Study Love Scam). International Journal of Education and Humanities, 5(2), 356–365. https://doi.org/10.58557/(ijeh).v5i2.313 Publication record
- Shepherd, L. A., & Szymkowiak, A. (2026). Romance Scams. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Cyberpsychology, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52643-5_173-1 Publication record
- Sorinmade, O., Emmett, C., Elugbadebo, O., & Okolo, C. (2025). Romance Scams and Older Adults: A Health and Social Care Perspective. Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, 11(3), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.24966/ggm-8662/100265 Publication record
- Wang, C. (2022). Online Dating Scam Victims Psychological Impact Analysis. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, 4, 149–154. https://doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v4i.2740 Publication record
- Wang, F. (2024). Victim-offender overlap: the identity transformations experienced by trafficked Chinese workers escaping from pig-butchering scam syndicate. Trends in Organized Crime. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12117-024-09525-5 Publication record
- Wang, F. (2026). A scoping review of online romance scams: Conceptual construction and comparative analysis. International Review of Victimology. https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580251414141 Publication record
- Wang, F., & Kelsay, J. D. (2025). The prevention of online romance scams using a crime script analysis from the victim’s perspective. International Review of Victimology. https://doi.org/10.1177/02697580251377100 Publication record
- Whitty, M. T. (2013). The Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model: Development of a Stage Model to Explain the Online Dating Romance Scam. British Journal of Criminology, 53(4), 665–684. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azt009 Publication record
- Whitty, M. T., & Buchanan, T. (2015). The online dating romance scam: The psychological impact on victims – both financial and non-financial. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 16(2), 176–194. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748895815603773 Publication record
- Yosiandra, S. Y., & Sakariah, D. S. (2024). Unveiling the Romance Scam Scheme: Psychological Manipulation and Its Impact on Victims. HUMANIKA, 31(2), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.14710/humanika.v31i2.67604 Publication record
This AI-assisted synthesis is based on reviewed evidence records. It may contain errors or omissions. Follow the publication and DOI links, consult the original works, and make your own judgment about the evidence.
Revision history
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Version 67
Current public versionAutomated evidence-grounded revision attempt 1. Initial version.
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Version 66
Initial version: this is the first synthesis for the controlled topic 'Victim Recovery' using the supplied reviewed evidence. No prior-version evidence changes apply.
- Publications: 31 (+9)
- Evidence statements: 120 (+32)
- Cited sources: 31 (+9)
Sources added: Legal Protection for Victims of Love Scam Crimes; Mapping romance fraud research – a systematic review; Mental Health Impacts of Cybercrime; My Parents Expectations Were Overwhelming: Online Dating Romance Scams Targeting Minors in Iran Through Exploitation of Parental Pressure; and 12 more.
Sources removed: Amor, dependencia y aislamiento: El impacto psicológico del romance scam; Do we need to know about cyberscams in neurorehabilitation? A cross-sectional scoping survey of Australasian clinicians and service providers; Emotional and financial costs of online dating scam: A phenomenological narrative of the experiences of victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters; Exploring Fear of Crime for Those Targeted by Romance Fraud; and 3 more.
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Version 65
Automated evidence-grounded revision attempt 3. Initial version. This synthesis is the first compiled version for this controlled topic using the provided evidence set.
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