A scoping review of online romance scams: Conceptual construction and comparative analysis

This scoping review synthesizes findings from 62 empirical studies to develop a typology of online romance scams, distinguishing between advance fee romance scams (AFRS) and investment-based romance scams (InvRS). The analysis reveals that while both rely on early-stage emotional manipulation and trust building, they diverge markedly in operational mechanisms and technological sophistication. AFRS typically use fabricated crises and prolonged emotional grooming to elicit repeated payments, whereas InvRS, including pig-butchering schemes, employ fraudulent investment platforms, often centered on cryptocurrency, to induce escalating financial commitments. By systematically reviewing studies published between January 2024 and October 2025 across both English and Chinese language sources, this work provides the most comprehensive comparative synthesis to date. The inclusion of 62 studies allows for cross regional and cross linguistic insights into offender networks, victim vulnerabilities, and prevention strategies, addressing a critical gap in prior literature that has treated romance scams as a single homogeneous phenomenon. The findings reveal the industrialization and diversification of offender tactics and underscore the need for future research on guardianship, victim psychology, and cross border policy collaboration to inform more targeted prevention and intervention frameworks.