[aaaaaaaaabc]

The objective isn't necessarily malicious, for people with very low self esteem and disdain for themselves it can be nice to talk to someone without any personal baggage, it can be nice to be someone interesting for once and once your in too deep there's no coming back, admitting your identity is fictional is a death sentence for the relationship.

[fallinghawks]

I agree with this. Someone who doesn't want to be who they are -- which is sometimes a reason people to into acting -- or wants to have, as you said, no personal baggage. I kind of see it as fiction writing for lazy people: instead of creating a cast of characters, the "scammer" focuses on one in great detail. This person has the excitement of studying another person's identity through their photos and/or videos and making up an entire fictional identity around it.