Work

The Online Romance Scam: A Serious Cybercrime

Year: 2012

Type: article

Abstract: The Online Romance Scam is a relatively new form of fraud that became apparent in about 2008. In this crime, criminals pretend to initiate a relationship through online dating sites then defraud their victims of large sums of money. This paper presents some descriptive statistics about knowledge and victimization of the online dating romance scam in Great Britain. Our study found that despite its newness, an estimated 230,000 British citizens may have fallen victim to this crime. We conclude that there needs to be some rethinking about providing avenues for victims to report the crime or at least making them more comfortable when doing so.

Source: Cyberpsychology Behavior and Social Networking

DOI: 10.1089/cyber.2011.0352

Authors: Monica T. Whitty, Tom Buchanan

Institutions: University of Leicester, University of Westminster

Language: English

Topic: Cybercrime and Law Enforcement Studies

Subfield: Law

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Peace, justice, and strong institutions

Open Access status: green

Funder: Economic and Social Research Council