Before you email that hunky soldier you met online, make sure that the man who stole your heart isn’t stealing your money too.

The Army is warning the public to look out for what investigators call ‘the Romance Scam.’ Cyber criminals approach women between the ages of 30 and 55 on social media and dating sites and claim to be American servicemen serving in a combat zone. These unsuspecting women are duped into believing they are romantically involved with these fake soldiers and eventually convinced to wire money to their ‘lovers.’

More often than not, the criminals behind this scam are neither soldiers nor American. The Army reports that most scammers come from West African countries and use the names, ranks and photos of real servicemen to trick women.

“We cannot stress enough that people need to stop sending money to persons they meet on the Internet and claim to be in the U.S. military,” said Chris Grey, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command’s spokesman. “It is very troubling to hear these stories over and over again of people who have sent thousands of dollars to someone they have never met and sometimes have never even spoken to on the phone.”

To convince women to send them money, scammers often request funds in order to obtain ‘leave papers,’ pay for medical expenses or even cover the plane ticket home. Scammers lie about Army policies in order to make the fake soldier’s situation seem dire and the intervening woman’s help all the more necessary.

In the last six months of 2014, these scams cost well-meaning American women a combined $82 million.

“The criminals are preying on the emotions and patriotism of their victims,” Grey said. He also said that though no U.S. servicemen have suffered financially, this scam harms the integrity of every soldier involved. “We don’t want victims who do not report this crime walking away and thinking that a U.S. serviceman has ripped them off when in fact that serviceman is honorably serving his country and often not even aware that his pictures or identity have been stolen.”

Here’s some advice the Army provides for avoiding this scam:

DON’T EVER SEND MONEY! Be extremely suspicious if you are asked for money for transportation costs, communication fees or marriage processing and medical fees.

Be very suspicious if you never get to actually speak with the person on the phone or are told you cannot write or receive letters in the mail.

Military members have an email address that end in “.mil.” If the person you are speaking with cannot sent you at least one email from a “.mil” (that will be the very LAST part of the address and nothing after), then there is a high probability they are not in the military.

Many of the negative claims made about the military and the supposed lack of support and services provided to troops overseas are far from reality — check the facts.

Be aware of common spelling, grammatical or language errors in the emails.

Be cognizant of foreign and regional accents that do not match the person’s story.