Women 'victims in 63% of romance scams': BBC, February 2019: 

 

In 2018, 4,555 reports of romance fraud were made to Action Fraud. Total losses were up by 27% compared with the previous year. The average age of a romance fraud victim is 50 and 63% of victims are women. They lose twice as much on average as males, Action Fraud said.

​

Lonely Hong Kong women are being swindled huge sums of money by fake lovers. Quartz, September 2018.

 

In the first half of 2018, according to Hong Kong police figures—there was a more than 40% increase over the number of romance scam cases recorded in the whole of 2017, with over 90% of the victims (link in Chinese) women...The average person scammed by fake lovers in Hong Kong lost about $64,000 on average in the first half of 2018, compared with $59,000 in 2017. At $21.6 million, the total amount of money swindled in the first six months of 2018 was 56% more than the entire amount lost in 2017. In the US, The FBI said (pdf) there were 15,372 reported cases of confidence and romance fraud in 2017 with the amount conned totaling $211.4 million, about $13,800 per victim. In the UK, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre said that 3,557 romance fraud cases were reported in 2017, the victims mostly being women, with losses totaling £41 million ($54 million), or £11,500 ($15,200) per victim.

​

Romance Scams: Online Imposters Break Hearts and Bank Accounts, FBI.gov 2017

​

ROMANCE SCAMS TARGETING ARIZONA WOMEN The Better Business Bureau reports that across the U.S. and Canada, people have lost more than $1 billion dollars to online romance scams.  These scams can be devastating to the victims.  They feel foolish, embarrassed, and deeply hurt. They become seriously depressed. Older people often go downhill after being victimized.