This is mostly correct but the clever thing (on her part) was that this was done very gradually, over time. It was as though she were revealing more and more over time; allowing me to be part of her actual life; communicating in a wider range of situations and so on. I think this added to the illusion of it being like an actual long-distance relationship that was developing. But to your point, yes, the essence of her gimmick is: You now are part of my real world; you know my real feelings; and so on...
It was easy for this to happen because even onsite, we talked. That was basically the essence of it. But over time - and I guess this is the strategy - she began to very gradually shift that into something with a romantic tone...and eventually it became a more overt concept along the lines of, "Yeah, I want to get out of this place and this work...with YOU." And then the communications shifted off-site, so she didn't have to give a cut to a studio.
Yes, that's on me. I think there are three reasons: 1) Even if you suspect something, it's not always that easy to cut it off immediately because emotions are involved and you don't want to accept that a person could so blatantly and repeatedly lie, 2) It started to take on a quality of trying to "prove" to myself what was going on, one way or the other, 3) Even though I was wasting money, I wasn't hurting for money and so I wasn't in distress over that aspect