I've seen these romance scams happen in real time while I was a relay operator. The people falling for them are just... Sad. Imagine being so sad and lonely, you'd literally do anything for anyone who says anything kind to you. That's who falls for these. The scammer doesn't even work at it. They just be like "I love you baby, can you send me $15,000?" And the victim is like "Yeah baby, I can do that."