Florida woman gets more than 4 years in prison for swindling Holocaust survivor out of life savings.

[ShazzieB]

32. The people I'm talking about are different from Melania.

She is what she is, and never pretended to be anything else. The people I'm taking about are fakes and impostors, pretending to be someone entirely different from who they are.

The con typically works something like this: You post a dating profile and up pops a promising match — good-looking, smart, funny and personable. Supposed suitors might also reach out on social media; more than a third of people who lost money to a romance scam in 2021 reported that it started on Facebook or Instagram, according to the FTC. They’ll use pictures of an attractive person, of course; check out Social Catfish’s list of the top 100 photos used for catfishing (using a fake identity to lure someone into a romantic relationship) in 2022.

This potential mate claims to live in another part of the country or to be abroad for business or a military deployment. But he or she seems smitten and eager to get to know you better, and suggests you move your relationship to a private channel like email or a chat app.

Over weeks or months, you feel yourself growing closer. You make plans to meet in person, but for your new love something always comes up. Then you get an urgent request. There’s an emergency (a medical problem, perhaps, or a business crisis) and your online companion needs you to send money fast, usually via gift cards, prepaid debit cards, cryptocurrency, or a bank or wire transfer.

They'll promise to pay it back, but that will never happen. Instead, they will keep asking for more until you realize it's a scam and cut them off.

https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2019/romance.html

This is a whole different thing from someone like Melania using their own looks and personal attributes to land a rich guy.