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Risk factors for fraud victimization: The role of socio-demographics, personality, mental, general, and cognitive health, activities, and fraud knowledge

Koning, Luka ; Junger, Marianne ; Veldkamp, Bernard (2023) — International Review of Victimology

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DOI: 10.1177/02697580231215839 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   Netherlands
Tags:   AI-Enabled Fraud, Dating Fraud, Exposure, Fraud Knowledge, Fraud Victimization, Internet Use, Measurement, Prevention, Psychology, Risk Factors, Susceptibility, Victim Experience
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Synopsis

            
The study seeks to understand why some individuals are victimized by fraud while others are not, by examining a broad set of personal risk factors in a Dutch sample. Using a representative, longitudinal design, the authors model fraudvictimization as a two-stage process: exposure to a fraud attempt and susceptibility to victimization among those exposed. They analyze three outcomes—victimization, susceptibility, and exposure—across multiple fraud categories, leveraging an exhaustive fraud taxonomy and imputing missing data to preserve participants. The research questions focus on the roles of socio-demographics, personality, mental and general health, routine Internet activities, and prior fraud knowledge. Across the analyses, there are few robust predictors of fraud victimization. Men show no difference in victimization but experience higher exposure and lower susceptibility in certain categories. Older age predicts less victimization and less exposure in several categories, while higher education predicts greater exposure to several fraud types. A non-Western immigrant background stands out as a strong risk factor, predicting more victimization, higher susceptibility, and greater exposure in multiple categories. Overall, personality factors have limited predictive power, with self-control showing the clearest associations: higher self-control relates to less victimization, lower susceptibility, and, in some cases, reduced exposure, though temporal ordering limits causal inferences. The authors conclude that fraud knowledge—targeted consumer education—may be a promising way to reduce susceptibility, given the general finding that individual-level prevention is limited. They emphasize that prevention may rely more on platforms and providers, rather than solely on changing individual traits, and acknowledge limitations related to multiple testing, measurement timing, and self-report. The study thus provides a cautious, source-grounded view of who is at risk and where prevention efforts might be most effectively directed.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Prior fraud-victimization research has been hindered by inconsistent and outdated fraud taxonomies, failure to distinguish exposure from susceptibility, nonrepresentative samples, and cross-sectional designs. The paper also identifies limited research on the effects of self-esteem and health-risk behaviors on fraud victimization. Evidence on immigrants as crime victims is limited, and cognitive measures may be too narrow to assess fraud vulnerability adequately.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
The study linked a 2021 Dutch fraud-victimization survey to longitudinal LISS panel background data, primarily measured before 2020 fraud events. A representative final sample of 2,864 adults completed a taxonomy-based survey covering multiple fraud categories, including dating fraud. Binary logistic regressions separately modeled victimization, susceptibility among exposed respondents, and exposure. Models adjusted for basic demographics; missing data were multiply imputed, and q values controlled false discoveries across 990 tests.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
Dating-fraud estimates are based on few events: 20 victims and 61 exposed respondents. More generally, low event counts reduced statistical power. Susceptibility models used only exposed participants and may not generalize to the full population. Observational data cannot establish causality; self-control and digit-span measures followed possible fraud events. Some background data were missing and imputed. Fraud experiences were self-reported and may reflect unrecognized victimization, nonreporting, or reporting differences.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Further research should examine why online shopping predicts victimization across multiple fraud forms, why social-media use is associated with lower charity-fraud victimization and susceptibility, and how fraud knowledge affects victimization while accounting for possible reporting differences. Research should also further explore mental-health relationships and use broader cognitive measures. For dating fraud specifically, larger samples are needed because only 20 respondents reported victimization.

          

              

    
    

        
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