Skip to main content

Love scam in cyberspace

Christian Thiel (2020) — Cyberkriminologie

View Original Source (opens in a new tab)

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-658-28507-4_10 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Book Chapter
Country:   Germany
Tags:   Cross Border Enforcement, Cybercrime Prevention, Emotional Grooming, Financial Exploitation, Revictimization, Romance Scams, Victim Impact
Citation tools
Download RIS Download BibTeX 


              
              

            

          

        


      

      

    

        
Transparency

        
Evidence and review status

        
This page contains AI-generated content. No human content review or subject-matter-expert review is recorded.

    


    

                    

                
Source basis

                

                    Downloaded PDF
                

            

                    

                
Source updates

                

                    Unresolved
                

            

                    

                
AI-generated page content

                

                    Yes
                

            

                    

                
Automated checks

                

                    Passed
                

            

                    

                
Administrative approval

                

                    Yes
                

            

                    

                
Human content review

                

                    Not recorded
                

            

                    

                
Subject-matter-expert review

                

                    Not recorded
                

            

            


    

        
            How this was prepared
        
        

                            

                    
Source basis

                    

                    
RSRC downloaded and privately stored a copy of the paper for internal analysis. The PDF is not offered to viewers from this page.


                                            
    
                                                            
  • 
                                    PDF added to RSRC:
                                    
                                
    • 
                                                    

                    
                                        

                

                            

                    
Source updates

                    

                    
The latest source-status check did not establish whether an incoming update notice exists. Missing metadata or provider access does not establish source validity.


                                            
    
                                                            
  • 
                                    Last source-status attempt:
                                    
                                
    • 
                                                    

                    
                                        

                

                            

                    
AI-generated page content

                    

                    
AI-generated research notes displayed on this page: Synopsis, Identified gaps, Methods, Limitations, Future work. The paper itself is not described as AI-generated.


                                            
    
                                                            
  • 
                                    Document analysis recorded:
                                    
                                
    • 
                                                            
  • 
                                    Page record updated:
                                    
                                
    • 
                                                    

                    
                                        

                

                            

                    
Automated checks

                    

                    
The current, source-bound synopsis passed the recorded versioned publication checks.


                                            
    
                                                            
  • 
                                    Checks completed:
                                    
                                
    • 
                                                    

                    
                                            

                            
                                View passed checks (3)
                            
                            
    
                                                                    
  • Length, completeness, repetition, refusal, boilerplate, and active-markup screening
    • 
                                                                    
  • Numerical claims checked against the available source text
    • 
                                                                    
  • English-source lexical grounding check
    • 
                                                            

                        

                                        

                

                            

                    
Administrative approval

                    

                    
The record is approved for public display, but a complete historical administrator action is not recorded.


                    
                                        

                

                            

                    
Human content review

                    

                    
No human review is recorded for the AI-generated content displayed on this page.


                    
                                        

                

                            

                    
Subject-matter-expert review

                    

                    
RSRC has not recorded review of this content by a subject-matter or methods expert.


                    
                                        

                

                    

    


    

        Review-state definitions

        Found a possible error?
        Request a correction.
    



    



              

        
                  

            
Synopsis

            
This chapter provides a systematic overview of international research on romance scams. It covers how romance fraud is defined and measured, the phases through which a fraudulent relationship commonly develops, and findings about offenders and victims. It also compares psychological and sociological explanations for why the deception can remain persuasive despite warning signs, then reviews prevention approaches used across countries. The work is a broad evidence synthesis rather than a new victim survey, experiment, or case dataset. Its value lies in organizing a dispersed literature and connecting prevalence, process, victimology, explanatory theory, and prevention within one account.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Reliable prevalence, regional distribution, and victimization-rate estimates are unavailable because romance scams are not separately recorded in Germany and substantial underreporting distorts available data. Evidence on offender selection criteria and offender knowledge is limited. Existing accounts also do not sufficiently explain the suggestive power of offender-victim communication; empirical analysis of the concrete interaction process is needed.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
This is a narrative, systematic overview of international criminological, psychological, sociological, and related literature on Internet romance scams. It synthesizes prior findings to define the phenomenon, outline a four-phase scam model, describe offenders and victims, summarize harms and explanatory theories, and review prevention approaches. It does not report original data collection or a formal systematic-review protocol.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The chapter relies on prior literature, police assessments, reported-case statistics, and illustrative accounts rather than original empirical data. The author notes weak and underreported prevalence data, limited knowledge of offenders and their target-selection criteria, and only tentative victim-characteristic findings. Several prevention claims are qualified because causal effects and coverage of interventions remain uncertain.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Conduct empirical analyses of the concrete interaction dynamics between offenders and victims in romance scams. Research should clarify why offender-victim communication is so suggestive and examine how scam techniques, organization, and technologies continue to evolve.

          

              

    
    

        
Related Research Insights

        

            See how this publication connects to RSRC's living evidence syntheses through current citations and research-topic mapping.