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Living Evidence Synthesis

Revision history

Grooming and Trust Development

Approved public versions are listed newest first. Drafts, unsuccessful generation attempts, and versions not yet published through this Research Insight are excluded.

Approved public versions

  1. Version 7

    Initial version: this is the first synthesis produced for the controlled topic. It consolidates evidence from stage models, corpus/discourse analyses, scoping/systematic reviews, offender interviews, and forensic case work represented in the supplied reviewed evidence. No prior synthesis version was provided for comparison.

    • Publications: 39 (+10)
    • Evidence statements: 152 (+26)
    • Cited sources: 39 (+10)

    Sources added: A Research on False Pragmatic Identity Construction in Telecom Network Dating Scam; A scoping review of online romance scams: Conceptual construction and comparative analysis; Distort, Extort, Deceive and Exploit: Exploring the Inner Workings of a Romance Fraud; Does age matter? Examining seniors’ experiences of romance fraud; and 18 more.

    Sources removed: Amor, dependencia y aislamiento: El impacto psicológico del romance scam; Cyber Romance Scam Victimization Analysis using Routine Activity Theory Versus Apriori Algorithm; Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman; Examining fifty cases of convicted online romance fraud offenders; and 8 more.

  2. Version 6

    Automated evidence-grounded revision attempt 1. This is the initial version of the synthesis. It consolidates core and cross-cutting evidence on grooming, trust-building signals, and the transition to financial manipulation, drawing on the specified reviews and primary studies. No prior version changes are recorded.

    • Publications: 29 (-107)
    • Evidence statements: 126 (-268)
    • Cited sources: 29 (-107)

    Sources removed: A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud; Addressing Cyberscams and Acquired Brain Injury (“I Desperately Need to Know What to Do”): Qualitative Exploration of Clinicians’ and Service Providers’ Perspectives; A Juridical Review of Love Scam Crimes from the Perspective of Criminal Law and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law in Indonesia; Analysis of "Pig-Butchering Scam" Type of Network Fraud from the Legal Perspective; and 103 more.

  3. Version 5

    This is the initial version of the synthesis. No previous version existed for direct material changes. Citations reflect the full set of reviewed records used to support the synthesized claims.

    • Publications: 136 (+45)
    • Evidence statements: 394 (+186)
    • Cited sources: 136 (+120)

    Sources added: A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud; Addressing Cyberscams and Acquired Brain Injury (“I Desperately Need to Know What to Do”): Qualitative Exploration of Clinicians’ and Service Providers’ Perspectives; A Juridical Review of Love Scam Crimes from the Perspective of Criminal Law and the Electronic Information and Transactions Law in Indonesia; Amor, dependencia y aislamiento: El impacto psicológico del romance scam; and 116 more.

    The approved evidence set changed while the cited-source list remained the same.

  4. Version 4

    Initial version; this synthesis compiles the supplied reviewed evidence to outline how grooming and trust develop in romance scams, identify core mechanisms, and discuss methodological patterns, limitations, and research gaps. No material evidence changes from a prior version are provided in the supplied records.

    • Cited sources: 16 (+7)

    Sources added: Analysis of a Cryptocurrency Investment Scam: Pig Butchering; Distort, Extort, Deceive and Exploit: Exploring the Inner Workings of a Romance Fraud; Emotional and financial costs of online dating scam: A phenomenological narrative of the experiences of victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters; Epistolary Affect and Romance Scams: Letter from an Unknown Woman; and 4 more.

    Sources removed: Devices of Textual Illusion: Victimization in Romance Scam E-Letters.

  5. Version 3

    This is the initial version of the synthesis; no prior version available for material-evidence comparison.

    • Cited sources: 9 (-16)

    Sources removed: A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud; Analysis of "Pig-Butchering Scam" Type of Network Fraud from the Legal Perspective; A Sinister Fattening: Dissecting the Tales of Pig Butchering and Other Cryptocurrency Scams; Distort, Extort, Deceive and Exploit: Exploring the Inner Workings of a Romance Fraud; and 12 more.

  6. Version 2

    This is the initial version of the synthesis. No prior version is available for material-evidence comparison. All statements draw on the supplied reviewed evidence records and are explicitly linked to supporting IDs. Where evidence conflicted or offered differing emphases (e.g., universality of stages, cross-cultural applicability), the synthesis notes disagreements and cites respective sources. Future directions emphasize longitudinal, cross-cultural, and representative research to strengthen c...

    • Cited sources: 25 (-2)

    Sources added: A crime script perspective on mapping the entry, continuation, and exit pathways of online romance fraud; Distort, Extort, Deceive and Exploit: Exploring the Inner Workings of a Romance Fraud; Drawing on social approval as a linguistic strategy: A discourse semantic analysis of judgement evaluation in suspected online romance scammer dating profiles; El timo del amor. Estafas eróticas realizadas por mujeres en Costa Rica entre 1970 y 1990 publicadas en el periódico La República; and 6 more.

    Sources removed: An Examination of Digital Validation-Seeking Behaviors in Adolescents as Precursors to Romance Scamming; Are fraud victims nothing more than animals? Critiquing the propagation of “pig butchering” (Sha Zhu Pan, 杀猪盘); Deconstructing a form of hybrid investment fraud: Examining ‘pig butchering’ in the United States; Do we need to know about cyberscams in neurorehabilitation? A cross-sectional scoping survey of Australasian clinicians and service providers; and 8 more.

  7. Version 1

    Initial version: No prior version; all conclusions drawn from the supplied reviewed evidence. No material evidence changes to report.

    • Publications: 91
    • Evidence statements: 208
    • Cited sources: 27
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