A relative of mine fell victim to one of these.

Their "relationship" developed over about 1 yr, and which point they sent ~£30k to temporarily cover a cashflow shortfall in their scammer's apparently legitimate business.

This was quickly detected by their spouse, who was obviously livid.

However..... not only did they transfer these funds to some limbo, and had received extremely clear advice that they had been scammed, they did the same thing with another ~£30k about a month later.

The funds so transferred went to some account in China.

The repetition of this "aberrant" behavior contributed to the divorce of my relative and their spouse.

In later conversations with the victim, who did eventually realize that they had been scammed, I attempted to reassure them by saying that these scammers are very skilled, and that they were innocent in the whole affair. It was small consolation, though.