Romance scam victims are not just losing the money they send to con artists, but suffering significant ongoing financial losses.

Jan Marshall, aged 62 from Melbourne, fell in love with a scammer posing as a British engineer working in Dubai and transferred amounts totalling $260,000 in late 2012.

On top of using her savings and obtaining multiple credit cards, she drew money out of a self-managed super fund.

"I was not allowed to take money out of that fund. I have to pay tax on that money at the rate of 46.5 per cent, so I've ended up with an additional bill of over $75,000," she said. "I can never pay that money."