Romance Scam Research Center

Do You Love Me? Psychological Characteristics of Romance Scam Victims

Whitty, MT. (2018) — Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom

Do You Love Me? Psychological Characteristics of Romance Scam Victims, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, presents a catalog-style overview of how perpetrators exploit online romance scripts a...

Victimization Analysis Based On Routine Activitiy Theory for Cyber-Love Scam in Malaysia

Saad, ME.; Norul Huda Sheikh Abdullah, S. (2018) — 2018 Cyber Resilience Conference (CRC)

Type: Proceedings Article Country: Malaysia Tags: victim experience, law enforcement, platform policy, prevention Methods: quantitative

This study applies Routine Activity Theory (RAT) to examine factors influencing victimization in cyber-love scams in Malaysia. With cases rising sharply alongside technological advances, the research sought to identify d...

Slumdog romance: Facebook love and digital privacy at the margins

Scheiber, Laura; Arora, Payal (2017) — Media, Culture & Society

Type: Journal Article Country: Netherlands Tags: platform policy, AI misuse, online dating platforms, cross-cultural

This study frames Facebook as a central arena for social life among economically disadvantaged populations in the global South, consolidating a range of online activities into a single, dominant platform. It notes that i...

Case Study: Romance Scams

Yen, TF.; Jakobsson, M. (2016) — Understanding Social Engineering Based Scams

Type: Book Chapter Country: United States Methods: experiment

This chapter provides a neutral overview of romance scams and describes an experimental effort to establish measurable attributes for study, including a data collection tool called the simulated spam filter. The text out...

The Role of Love stories in Romance Scams: A Qualitative Analysis of Fraudulent Profiles

Christian Kopp; Robert Layton; Jim Sillitoe; Iqbal Gondal (2016) — Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Type: Journal Article Country: Nigeria Tags: victim experience, offender tactics, AI misuse, cross-cultural Methods: interview, qualitative

The Online Romance Scam represents a highly effective form of fraud that imposes substantial financial losses and emotional distress on those targeted. This study develops a perspective intended to help explain why this...

The online dating romance scam: The psychological impact on victims – both financial and non-financial

Whitty, MT.; Buchanan, T. (2015) — Criminology & Criminal Justice

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom Tags: victim experience, psychology, law enforcement, platform policy

This study explores the psychological consequences of online dating romance scams, a form of fraud that combines financial harm with the collapse of a personal relationship. Unlike victims of other mass marketing frauds,...

The online dating romance scam: causes and consequences of victimhood

Buchanan, T.; Whitty, MT. (2013) — Psychology, Crime & Law

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom

This catalog-style synopsis surveys the topic of online dating romance scams as presented in Psychology, Crime & Law. The article defines the phenomenon as deceitful relationship-building undertaken through digital datin...

The Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model: Development of a Stage Model to Explain the Online Dating Romance Scam

Whitty, MT. (2013) — British Journal of Criminology

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom

This article develops a stage-based explanatory framework to account for online dating romance scams. The proposed model traces how persuasive techniques are organized and deployed across successive phases of a scam enco...

The Online Romance Scam: A Serious Cybercrime

Whitty, MT.; Buchanan, T. (2012) — Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking

Type: Journal Article Country: United Kingdom

This entry examines online romance scams as a form of cybercrime characterized by deliberate deception within internet relationships initiated on dating sites, apps, or social networks. Perpetrators cultivate emotional c...

Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman<sup>*</sup>

Steyerl, H. (2011) — October

Type: Journal Article Country: United States

This work is presented as a catalog-style inquiry into how written address and emotional rhetoric operate within the framework of romance and deception. The item treats the epistolary form as a vehicle for affect, tracin...