Romance fraud involves cybercriminals engineering a romantic relationship on online dating platforms. It is a cruel form of cybercrime whereby victims are left heartbroken, often facing financial ruin. We characterise the literary landscape on romance fraud, advancing the understanding of researchers and practitioners by systematically reviewing and synthesising contemporary qualitative and quantitative evidence. The systematic review provides an overview of the field by establishing influencing factors of victimhood and exploring countermeasures for mitigating romance scams. We searched ten scholarly databases and websites using terms related to romance fraud. Studies identified were screened, and high-level metadata and findings were extracted, synthesised, and contrasted. The methodology followed the PRISMA guidelines: a total of 232 papers were screened. Eighty-two papers were assessed for eligibility, and 44 were included in the final analysis. Three main contributions were identified: profiles of romance scams, countermeasures for mitigating romance scams, and factors that predispose an individual to become a scammer or a victim. Despite a growing corpus of literature, the total number of empirical or experimental examinations remained limited. The paper concludes with avenues for future research and victimhood intervention strategies for practitioners, law enforcement, and industry.

翻译：网络婚恋诈骗是指犯罪分子在在线约会平台上虚构浪漫关系的行为。这是一种残酷的网络犯罪形式，受害者不仅遭受情感创伤，还常面临经济崩溃。我们通过系统梳理与综合当代定性与定量证据，描绘了婚恋诈骗研究的文献全景，推动研究人员与实践者对该领域的认知。本系统综述通过确立受害者影响因素并探索减轻诈骗对策，提供了领域整体概览。我们使用与婚恋诈骗相关的术语检索了十个学术数据库与网站，对识别出的研究进行筛选，提取、综合并对比了高层元数据与研究发现。研究方法遵循PRISMA指南：共筛选232篇论文，其中82篇通过资格评估，最终44篇纳入分析。主要贡献涉及三大主题：婚恋诈骗特征画像、减轻诈骗的应对措施、以及个体易成为诈骗者或受害者的前置因素。尽管文献数量持续增长，但实证或实验性研究总量仍然有限。本文最后为实践者、执法机构及行业提出了未来研究方向与受害者干预策略。