Book ~ "Keanu Reeves is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud" (2024) Becky Holmes

From Goodreads ~ Online romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously.

This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon. No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William – and Becky Holmes is a favourite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers. 

By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet. Featuring first-hand accounts of victims, examples of scripts used by fraudsters, a look into the psychology of fraud and of course plenty of Becky’s hysterical interactions with scammers, this is a must-read for anyone who needs a reminder that Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with them.

Every day I get creepy messages from strangers and "celebrities" on Instagram and friend requests on Facebook and I automatically delete them because I know they are from scammers. And that's what lead this author down the path to write this book ... she was bored and started responding to messages on Twitter and reposting them.

This book is about online romance fraud and covers various topics such as what it is, how to know if you are being scammed, who is doing it, how friends and family may look upon you if have been scammed, what to do about it and more. The author includes stories of women who have been taken in and the strategies of the scammers are very similar (for example, the scammer "works" someplace where they are hard to reach like on an oil rig, they are taking care of family members, they are widowers, etc.). I know I'll never fall for one of these scams and send lots of money but scammers are smart and trained and usually the people who fall for it are in a bad place emotionally and are ripe for the picking.

I found this book interesting and I liked the writing style. Yes, it's a serious topic but the author uses humour and honesty. It's obvious she has done a lot of research and she includes screenshots of conversations she's had where she is leading the scammers on and they usually don't even realize she is writing gibberish to them. As a head's up, there is swearing.