Understanding Victims’ Lived Experiences Following Online Romance Scam Victimization in the United States

Background and Purpose: Online romance scams (ORS) occur when a scammer deceives victims using romantic relationships for financial gain. These scams that can begin on the Internet impact those users and threaten their financial, emotional, and physical well-being. Limited scholarship on ORS in the United States has been completed, and the gap poses a safety risk for all Internet users. With scam research focusing on U.S. populations, an imperative need grows to know how this fraud affects victims in this country. Using the lived experiences of adult U.S. victims, this researcher identifies qualitative findings from a mixed-method study that expand dating violence research and offer implications for research, practice, education, and policy.

Methods: Nineteen semi-structured interviews informed by existing research were completed from November 2023 to March 2024 via teleconferencing with adult participants (age 18 or older) who had been victimized, lost any amount of money in an ORS, met the scammer on any Internet platform and lived in the U.S. The sample is majority-female (79%), White (White 58%; Black 21%, Asian 11%, and Other 10%), not Latino/a (90%), and college-educated (79%). The average age of participants was 53 years old. The financial loss reported was $2,504,300, with a mean loss of $139,126 (S.D. = $224,384). The researcher employed interpretative phenomenological analysis and reviewed all de-identified transcripts, then re-reviewed identifying emerging codes and themes in the data.

Findings: Responses based on the lived experience of ORS victims identified consequences of ORS organized by these four themes: 1) health, 2) financial, 3) social, and 4) legal. Health consequences refer to the victim's mental health (M.H.) and physical health (P.H.) in the time following victimization, including three M.H. subthemes: emotional dysregulation, morbidities, and suicide, and three P.H. subthemes: physiological changes, medical-related debt, and sleep loss. Financial consequences include the events following victimization that impact their financial status, mobility, and well-being. Subthemes include loss of money, financial autonomy, and financial obligations. Social consequences mean the changes to social relationships and social status reported by ORS victims with identified subthemes: strained relationships, reluctance in new relationships, and stigma and bias. The final theme, legal consequences, are the events involving victims' civil and criminal involvement; they encompass subthemes: litigation, law enforcement encounters, and revictimization risks.

Conclusion and Implications: These findings suggest that ORS victims experience complex and life-changing consequences post victimization. It highlights a form of technologically-facilitated violence that has been under researched in the U.S. Research implications suggest developing a conceptualization and theory based on U.S. ORS victimization. Policy implications advise for greater Internet platform reporting of ORS victimization trends. Educational implications recommend interdisciplinary professional education on ORS victimization for justice officials (e.g., lawyers, police, and judges) and help-service providers (e.g., social workers and victims advocates). Practice implications for professionals recommend for suicide screenings and comprehensive case management for victims. This research provides great insight into the consequences following ORS victimization and will help support individuals deceived by this devastating fraud.