Crash your computer?

Hi,
I am hearing some things about scammers, esp. those for romance, crashing their victims' computers out of retaliation when confronted or discovered. I was wondering if there's any truth to this. If so, what are some software that may help protect me?
I've already gotten pictures via email from them long time ago, so would those be the seeds that will activate? Would just deleting the attachments be sufficient? Or do I need to delete the emails as well? also, is there a way to save emails onto a separate storage drive?
Thanks again for everyone's help, this site has done a 180 on me. It's just horrible that we are unable to get any retribution for all the damage.

There's absolutely no need to worry about that. Scammers are used to getting confronted, and the last thing they want to do is to put energy into someone that isn't going to pay. When they realise you're not paying, they move on. It really is as simple as that. The worst thing that might happen is that you receive more spam in your inbox, and that is very rare.

If the scammer threatens to infect your pc unless you send money it's a simple case of extortion - a last effort to get you into sending money. Just ignore it. The only people they ever get mad enough at to actually try to harm them are the people behind the anti-scam sites. And we know how to deal with them

To add to what Michael said:

Some of these scammers do threaten to hack your computer, but the truth is, they are not capable hackers.
These scammers are looking for as much money as possible for as little work as possible. If they were good at hacking, they could make more money that way than they do scamming. The scammer wouldn't spend months working on a victim, trying to get him or her to pay, when they could just steal credit card and banking information and take the money.

That isn't to say that scammers can't get hold of malware--anybody can do that. They CAN send you a virusIt's as simple as forwarding something you know is infected. But you can protect yourself against that if you follow simple rules for internet safety.

-Make sure you have a current antivirus program (with current definitions)
-if you have Windows, make sure the latest updates have been applied.
-Make sure you have installed any security updates for your browser
-Don't open any attachments from your scammer (you shouldn't be opening any attachments unless you know and trust the sender AND are expecting them anyway)
-don't follow any website links they send to you.

If you haven't already, please read the info for victims in my signature line, as it may answer some more of your questions.

Attachments are dangerous if they aren't what the claim to be. If they are pictures and you've viewed them, I can't see you have anything to worry about.

Ok great, because I'm part of another group and they've been stressing about blocking these people, not only for reasons of cutting off complete contact, which I know has already been explained on this site, but also the other factor of preventing them from crashing your computer.
Thanks everyone for your expertise!