An emerging type of ID theft may leave women with a broken heart, as well as with a lighter wallet. Scammers are now stealing the faces of other people who have posted their pictures online in order to wield their trade.

These crooks are based in Nigeria mainly and are using the stolen pictures in scams on the internet. They are trying to cheat people who are looking for love, breaking hearts frequently and adding hurtful injuries related to money.

One man’s picture has become a favorite one used by the online scammers. The scammers claim that the man’s image is one of someone who they created specifically for dating sites online. When women who are looking for love get in contact with the scammer, they are asked for money eventually in order to help him out. The victims then do exactly that way too often.

It has been found that about $36 million are sent to scammers in Nigeria every year from Australians, which includes online dating sites among others, according to Brian Hay, the Operations Commander for the Fraud and Corporate Crimes Group of Queensland Police. He points out that this country, however, is not the only one that is swindling money from Australians, as Italy, Spain, and Liberia have also replicated the success of scamming.

The big problem, though, is that murders have been a result of some of the victims trying to get their money back, which includes any kind of scam. According to the Australian Institute of Criminology’s research, from 1992 to 1999, there were 17 people killed, mostly Americans, when they attempted to reclaim their money.