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Grooming in online dating romance frauds and scams: A scoping review

Feng, Maja (2026) — Journal of Economic Criminology

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jeconc.2026.100231 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   Global
Tags:   Deception, Digital Intimacy, Grooming, Odarfs, Online Dating Romance Frauds And Scams, Persuasive Techniques, Relational Deception, Romance Scams, Scoping Review, Social Engineering, Trust Building, Victim Harm
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Synopsis

            
This scoping review followed a pre-registered protocol and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. It searched seven scholarly and four grey literature databases, screened 3,454 records, and included 87 publications (54 main, 33 updated). Data were extracted on publication characteristics and findings and analyzed abductively with thematic analysis in NVivo, guided by the four objectives and the Scammers Persuasive Technique Model to map grooming practices in ODARFS. The review conceptualizes grooming as a relational and deceptive process embedded in social, cultural, economic, and digital contexts. Grooming is seldom used or empirically investigated in the ODARFS literature. Limitations include heterogeneity across studies, many treating grooming as background rather than empirically examined, and terminology variation across ODARFS literature.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Gaps include limited empirical understanding of grooming mechanisms enabling ODARFS, sparse data on perpetrators’ demographics and psychology, and unclear how social, cultural, economic, and digital contexts interact to promote grooming. Terminology is inconsistent and grooming is often treated as background rather than core. There is a need for longitudinal or cross-cultural studies, integration of victims’ and platforms’ perspectives, and clearer pathways from trust-building to exploitation.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
This scoping review followed a pre-registered protocol and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. It searched seven scholarly and four grey literature databases, screened 3,454 records, and included 87 publications (54 main, 33 updated). Data were extracted on publication characteristics and findings and analyzed abductively with thematic analysis in NVivo, guided by the four objectives and the Scammers Persuasive Technique Model to map grooming practices in ODARFS.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
Limitations include heterogeneity across studies, many treating grooming as background rather than empirically examined, and terminology variation across ODARFS literature. Language restrictions (English/Scandinavian) and grey literature inclusion may affect completeness and quality. Some studies were categorized as multiple countries, hindering country-level inference. The predominance of cross-sectional designs limits causal claims about grooming effects and victimisation pathways.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Future work should advance understanding of relational deception and trust cultivation within ODARFS, examine perpetrators’ characteristics and motives, and compare cross-cultural and platform-specific contexts. Theoretical models should integrate emotional labour and digital intimacy with grooming processes; assess prevention, policing, and platform-design interventions; and employ longitudinal or experimental designs to establish causal pathways.

          

              

    
    

        
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