We offer information about love scams and low-threshold support for
victims and to the people close to them. We are here to help you.
Romance Scam Recovery Project (2023– 2025) develops and provides low-threshold interventions to support the recovery of romance scam victims in Finland.
- Online and offline peer group interventions for victims
- Professional individual counseling and social support for victims and to the people close to them
- Preventing romance scams through wide-reaching education and awareness raising
- Training professionals to identify and address the victims and to support their recovery.
The project enhances wellbeing and recovery through social support, counseling and peer support groups. It also raises awareness and breaks taboos about the phenomenon of romance scams. Our services are available nationwide in Finland – online and offline. Although we only operate in Finland, we are very interested in learning about international studies, services and any new developments that have to do with the phenomenon – please get in touch and we’ll talk!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram @nettideittiturva.
Helmi Korhonen
Head planner
Romance Scam Recovery -project
helmi.korhonen@sosped.fi
Romance Scam Recovery Project focuses on:
Online and offline peer group interventions for victims
Romance Scam Recovery Project has developed free, low-threshold peer support group intervention.
Fixed program for romance scam victims includes six weekly meetings with selected themes. Peer support, psychoeducation, sharing experiences, assigments, instructor-guided thematic discussions and skill training of strengthening personal and emotional boundaries are employed as the main methods to enhance their wellbeing and future safety in online communications. Themes include e.g. self-knowledge and emotional skills and safety plan to prevent future online harms. Groups are guided by professional instructors.
Professional individual counseling and social support for victims and to the people close to them
Counseling includes three to six weekly or bi-weekly one-hour meetings (face-to-face or online) with a professional. First the focus is on emotional stabilization and identifying needed support (e.g. for financial recovery or referral of medical regimen). Then counseling focuses to strengthen victims’ self-knowledge and emotional skills by psychoeducation. Themes may also include exploring life-cycle and past relationships, development of emotional skilss and streghtening personal and emotional boundaries. Lastly personal safety plan prevents revictimization and future online harms.
Preventing romance scams through wide-reaching education and awareness raising
Preventive scam avoidance education and information to the public are spreaded by social media, podcast-series, public lectures and written articles (about romance scams and other related themes e.g. money laundering, social manipulation techniques). Experts by experience are trained to give interviews to media and their stories are published in project’s web page.
Training of professionals to identify and address the victims and to support their recovery
Open lectures and tailored training for professionals in various fields (e.g. health and social service workers or financing officers) include guidelines to identify and bring up the issue with possible victims. Supporting materials and articles, such as referral of victims to support services with links to other support service providers’ websites are also available for spouses and concerned others of those affected by romance scam. Tailored online courses for professionals are being published with Laurea University of Applied Sciences and Finnish Police University College.
Romance Scam Recovery -project is administered by two Finnish non-profit organizations Sosped Foundation and Maria Akatemia. The project (2023-2025) is funded by the Funding Centre of Social Wellfare and Health Organizations (STEA), which operates under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health in Finland.
Information about the romance scam phenomenon
The harsh realities of romance scams -article
In this PopNAD request article, Helmi Korhonen with co-writer describe romance scams and their far-reaching impacts on victims, their close ones, and society at large. Beyond financial losses, these scams involve a complex web of psychological and emotional manipulation, causing profound feelings of guilt and shame in the victims. The cultural openness and high levels of trust prevalent in Nordic societies make them particularly vulnerable to romance scams. Read the full article on PopNAD-pages.
What is a romance scam?
A romance scam is a financial fraud in which the perpetrator intends to defraud money. The person experiencing a romance scam, the victim, believes to be in a long-distance relationship, although in reality, the significant other is a criminal or a group of criminals. In Finland, 9 million euros were lost to romance scams and document frauds in 2022 (Finanssiala ry).
There is a strong stigma associated with the romance scam phenomenon, and the effects on those who experience it are innumerable. Besides economic consequences, shame, guilt and depressive symptoms, the victim has to face the dream of a romantic relationship falling apart. In addition to psychological effects, many victims face financial challenges, such as debt. Experiencing a romance scam often leads to problems in close interpersonal relationships. Getting into debt might cause conflicts and the victim might isolate from loved ones.
Romance scams often follow a typical pattern
Contact with the victim takes place either on social media or online dating platforms. The perpetrator might send a similar message to countless profiles simultaneously to create the first contact.
When contacting their target, a romance scammer tries to appear trustworthy and successful. It is common for the perpetrator to say that he works in a respected profession, such as a soldier, a doctor or a business manager. To support this lie, the scammer often uses pictures of people who actually work in these professions.
The perpetrator builds trust with the victim often for several months. Reciprocal messaging is continued until the victim has started to trust the perpetrator enough, and the romantic relationship has become strong.
When the victim believes in the genuineness of the romantic relationship, their judgment may drop significantly. When in love, a person cannot think clearly, and intelligence, education or common sense are of little help. The amount of trust in the relationship can remain strong even if the victim has passing doubts about the intentions of their romantic messaging partner. The victim of the scam might ignore all kinds of warning signs, gaps and inconsistencies in the perpetrator’s story, because they want to believe that the relationship is genuine.
In “the money stage”, the perpetrator’s requests for financial aid begin. Often the perpetrator urgently needs financial help, for example, to enable the first face-to-face meeting or to avoid some sort of crisis situation in their everyday life. By first establishing a relationship of trust with the victim, the emotional commitment is strong at this stage, thus making it likely that the victim will want to help and send money to the scammer.
Only after these initial stages (contact, trust, money) can it be said, that the next stages of a romance scam differ for the victim and the perpetrator.
The victim may gradually become growingly suspicious of the situation, begin to question the perceived romance, and share doubts with their loved ones (family and friends) or even with the perpetrator. The scammer’s options are either to disappear from the online conversation (so-called ghosting) or to try to strengthen the emotional bond with the victim by asserting reliability so that the scam can continue.
The final stage of a romance scam is the disclosure of the situation. The victim is left alone to deal with a huge disappointment and financial losses. It can be extremely difficult to comprehend and accept that the perceived love was actually a financial fraud. The emotional reactions of the victim can be strong. At this point, the perpetrator disappears from victim’s life, and depending on the situation, either has to bear criminal charges for their actions or gets away unpunished. The victim has to decide whether to press for charges and how to proceed in handling the situation.
One shouldn’t stay in this kind of situation alone without help and support.