It's sad because it makes legitimate meeting people for a relationship very difficult.

I feel sorry for her, but surely common sense would tell us not to send money to anyone we have just met online. I know sometimes vulnerable people do this, despite all the warnings, but the old adage “if something seems to be too good to be true, then it probably isn’t true “. This applies to most things in life, and especially if it has a large price-tag attached to it, in order to access it!

An alternate view is to ask the question"if I'm not prepared to lose this money why am I sending it to someone?".
How much will you give to your favourite charity?

I take it personal when I see idiots pretending to be military service members! The lowest form of disrespect to my brothers and sisters in arms!

How long does the net have to exist before people understand that you can not assume that anything on it is real. Very sad, but if this was a church taking money from people, for having a date with an none existent lover in the sky, would the authorities be concerned ?