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Beyond Dollars: Unveiling the Deeper Layers of Online Romance Scams Introducing “Body Scam”

Sima Amirkhani ; Fatemeh Alizadeh ; Dave Randall ; Gunnar Stevens (2024) — Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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DOI: 10.1145/3613905.3651004 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Proceedings Article
Country:   Germany
Tags:   Body Scam, Iran, Non Western Context, Online Dating, Qualitative Interviews, Qualitative Research, Romance Scams, Sextortion, Sexual Abuse
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Synopsis

            
This preliminary qualitative study recruited 20 Iranian survivors of cyber romance scams through Instagram and Telegram. Participants were 17 women and three men, aged 14-36 at the incident. Researchers conducted remote Persian narrative interviews (voice, messaging, or text; 40 minutes to 2.5 hours), transcribed them into English, and used qualitative content analysis in MAXQDA. Thirteen participants reported sexual abuse experiences ranging from sexting and sextortion to rape and pregnancy. One participant reported sextortion accompanied by a financial demand to prevent publication of a video. The study is explicitly preliminary and qualitative, based on 20 self-selected participants recruited from an Instagram account and public Telegram channel, limiting breadth and likely representativeness.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
The paper identifies limited literature on sexual abuse in online romance scams, relative to well-documented financial harms. It also positions non-Western, restrictive contexts as under-studied and argues that prevailing definitions insufficiently capture relationships established solely for sexual gain. The authors call for clearer evidence on specific body-scam risk factors and consequences, particularly culturally shaped harms in societies where premarital relationships are taboo.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
This preliminary qualitative study recruited 20 Iranian survivors of cyber romance scams through Instagram and Telegram. Participants were 17 women and three men, aged 14–36 at the incident. Researchers conducted remote Persian narrative interviews (voice, messaging, or text; 40 minutes to 2.5 hours), transcribed them into English, and used qualitative content analysis in MAXQDA. The lead author developed codes and themes, which coauthors refined; this paper focuses on the “Sexual Abuses” theme.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The study is explicitly preliminary and qualitative, based on 20 self-selected participants recruited from an Instagram account and public Telegram channel, limiting breadth and likely representativeness. Recruitment-channel demographics were incomplete for Telegram. Interviews were translated from Persian to English. Although five themes were coded, this report focuses only on sexual abuse, rather than presenting the full range of dating practices, vulnerabilities, intentions, and coping. Findings are therefore context-specific and not sufficient to establish prevalence or comparative severity.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Conduct more extensive research on online romance scams in non-Western settings where premarital relationships are unacceptable. Develop and test a universally applicable definition of romance scams that includes “body scams.” Dissect the identified risk factors and empirically examine body-scam consequences, including whether harms exceed those of money scams. Integrate findings into culturally relevant social-media communication tools and systems that improve dater safety and victim support.

          

              

    
    

        
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