Online Dating Romance Scam project - University of Leicester

University of Leicester Project

http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/media/ ... am-project

Development of the Online Romance Scam toolkits for the Public Sector (ES/J010863/1)
2012-2013: This 'follow on' project funded by the ESRC (£96,931). The project, headed by Professor Whitty aims to: create two tool kits: 1) to train police to improve policing practice with regards to dealing with victims of the online romance scam; 2) change the way victims are treated when they give statements as witnesses in court.

http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2011/september/romance-scams-online-hit-hundreds-of-thousands-of-victims

An earlier article giving some idea of the scale of the problem.

New online research led by the University of Leicester reveals that over 200,000 people living in Britain may have fallen victim to online romance scams – far more than had been previously estimated.