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El timo del amor. Estafas eróticas realizadas por mujeres en Costa Rica entre 1970 y 1990 publicadas en el periódico La República

Paula Sequeira Rovira (2025) — Cuadernos Inter.c.a.mbio sobre Centroamérica y el Caribe

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DOI: 10.15517/ca.v21i2.64038 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   Costa Rica
Tags:   Casual Sexuality, Costa Rica, Erotic Scams, Gender, Love Scam, Press History, Sexuality, Theft
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Synopsis

            
This work addresses a crime that emerged in Costa Rica between the 1970s and the early 1990s, known as the “timo del amor” (love swindle). It consisted of frauds with erotic connotations in which the victims were men deceived before, during, or after engaging in casual sexual encounters. The aim of the study is to recover this history in order to invite reflection on the characteristics that distinguished men and women at that time, and to highlight an ambiguity in gender roles that emerges from the news stories examined. The research is based on a review of the crime section of the newspaper La República during the mentioned periods, with the goal of reconstructing the informational framework in which these stories circulated and understanding the narratives surrounding them. The analysis relies on consulting journalistic archives from the newspaper, focusing on crime reports that documented these cases across the indicated decades. From this source, the study identifies patterns of representation and determines how the plots of the “love swindle” were constructed within the news, referring to the scenes of encounters and the people involved. The approach seeks to explain, on the basis of the reviewed material, how the journalistic descriptions articulated concepts of sexuality, masculinity, and femininity, and how these elements contributed to a social vision of criminal reality and of behaviors considered acceptable or dangerous. In the conclusions, the study examines recurring ideas about these crimes, which portrayed men as impulsive and, at the same time, naïve, while women were described as cunning and uninterested in traditional sexual morality. These repeated representations suggested the dangerousness of any woman who showed interest in patterns of casual sex, and they indicate how media coverage could have reinforced gender stereotypes while simultaneously justifying social fears about female autonomy in intimate spheres. Thus, the work proposes a critical reading of journalistic sources to understand how the news narratives of the time contributed to constructing supposed limits and risks associated with female sexuality and male behavior in contexts of courtship and deceit.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
The author states that no other work has addressed this historical phenomenon. The study also excludes the second type of scam attributed by the press to feminized people who were later identified as homosexual men. The coverage can describe journalistic representations, but cannot establish the actual frequency of crimes outside the capital or beyond cases that reached La República.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
Historical documentary study of the crime section of La República, accessed through the National Library System (SINABI) platform. Issues from January 1970 to December 1999 were reviewed to identify reports of erotic scams; the analysis focuses on 74 reports involving women portrayed as offenders, occurring from 1970 to 1993. Cases were classified by victim, decade, location, and strategy, using criteria of an erotic or attraction-based link and theft of money or valuable objects.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The sole source was La República, selected for its continuity in SINABI; thus, findings reflect journalistic coverage and writing, not necessarily actual incidence. Many reports were one or two paragraphs long and ambiguous, making sexual intent, location, and modus operandi difficult to determine; cases were excluded when this link was not explicit. The author also states that it cannot determine how common the scams were outside San José or why they stopped appearing after 1993.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Analyze, in a subsequent study, the second type of love scam attributed in news reports to people presented as women who were later identified as homosexual men. It would also be useful to examine why La República stopped publishing similar cases after 1993, although the text offers only speculative explanations.

          

              

    
    

        
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