Strange what people fall for. I suppose if lonely, or they think someone loves them or has some interest in them, they lose a bit of their caution.
I had a client who was older, divorced, lonely and she met someone online. He would tell her this and that, never follow through. Such as promising to fly and meet her. Kept stringing her along. Seems as if he was in California and she was in Texas. She would offer to fly out to him but something always came up, he had to travel for work, etc.
Once she was sniffing the bait, money came up. I don't recall the details, but he needed some rather small amount, a few thousand and she fell for it. He paid her back, with interest, in about a month or so. Then he needed $20,000 or $40,000 for something, something that would hasten him being able to come to Texas and meet her. She loaned him the money. I don't think he ever paid her anything after the first loan, or at least didn't fully repay her.
This kept on and on and she would send him money. When she finally ran out of funds, she got suspicious. He was to meet her at the airport with all her money but didn't show. The address he gave her was an empty building or a vacant lot or something along those lines. She had emptied out her retirement savings, of course owed tax on that, tax she had no way to pay.
I didn't become aware of any of this until it had all transpired.
I think she wound up sending the guy close to a million dollars. Last I heard the FBI was trying to catch the guy. Don't know if they ever did.