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The dynamic emotional experience of online fraud victims during the process of being defrauded: A text-based analysis

Jie Wang ; Lei Zhang ; Liang Xu ; Xiuying Qian (2024) — Journal of Criminal Justice

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DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102231 (opens in a new tab)

Type:   Journal Article
Country:   China
Tags:   China, Fraud Intervention, Online Fraud, Pig Butchering Fraud, Sentiment Analysis, Social Media Narratives, Victim Emotions
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Synopsis

            
This study analyzes how victims of online fraud in China experience emotions over the course of being defrauded, using a text-based sentiment approach on self-reported narratives from two social platforms. The authors collected 1,217 posts from Zhihu and Douban, then cleaned and segmented the texts into three stages of victimization: hooking (early), engagement (middle), and aftermath (late). An eight-category emotion lexicon was applied to quantify positive and negative emotions at each stage, with additional analysis by fraud type. Across the sample, initial emotions tended to be more positive or hopeful, with expectation and love appearing prominently in the early stage. As the fraud progressed, negative emotions generally rose in the middle and late stages, while positive emotions often declined. The study also found variation by fraud type: for example, government impostor, acquaintance impostor, refund, and loan write-off frauds showed distinct patterns, with certain emotions such as anxiety, expectation, love, and disgust peaking at different stages. Pig-butchering and online transaction/investment-related schemes demonstrated their own unique emotion profiles, though a common trajectory emerged in which negative affect increased as the deception deepened. The authors acknowledge limitations, including reliance on self-reported online posts, potential memory biases, and the absence of nonvictim comparison groups. They frame the findings as a non-Western perspective that supports further development of stage-specific fraud interventions informed by victims’ emotional states, such as targeted warnings in early stages and psychological support in later stages. Overall, the work highlights the dynamic emotional landscape of online fraud victims and offers groundwork for whole-process intervention strategies grounded in emotion.

          

        
                  

            
Identified Gaps

            
Prior research has largely examined emotions before or after fraud, with few studies systematically tracking emotional development across the full victimization process. Existing intervention research often relies on identifying vulnerable individuals and designing warnings through trial and error or general persuasion theories, rather than victims' emotional states during victimization.

          

        
                  

            
Methods

            
The study retrospectively analyzed 1,217 Chinese-language self-reported online-fraud narratives scraped from Zhihu and Douban. Posts were cleaned and manually divided into hooking, engagement, and aftermath stages. A validated Chinese eight-emotion lexicon and Python lexical matching measured emotion-word proportions, with negation handling. Generalized estimating equations tested differences by stage and fraud type; double coding of 10% of cases produced an average Kappa of 0.86.

          

        
                  

            
Limitations

            
The online, self-selected sample may not represent all fraud victims. Narratives were self-reported after the scam and may involve concealment, incomplete information, memory distortion, and effects of prior disclosure to police or family. Missing stages or emotions in posts may not mean emotions were absent. Lexicon-based retrospective narratives may not fully capture actual emotional experience. The study also did not compare victims with people exposed to scams who avoided victimization.

          

        
                  

            
Future Work

            
Develop emotion-sensitive, stage-specific fraud interventions: early awareness campaigns addressing expectation and attraction; middle-stage warnings incorporating emotion regulation; and late-stage psychological support to reduce secondary harm. Compare posts from people who encountered scams without becoming victims to clarify emotions' role in victimization. The authors also suggest classifying scams based on victims' emotional experiences.

          

              

    
    

        
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