{"id":11845,"date":"2024-07-11T21:33:28","date_gmt":"2024-07-11T21:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=11845"},"modified":"2024-07-11T21:33:29","modified_gmt":"2024-07-11T21:33:29","slug":"blinded-by-love-how-online-fraudsters-scam-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2024\/07\/11\/blinded-by-love-how-online-fraudsters-scam-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinded by Love: How Online Fraudsters Scam Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Timothy Dickinson and Fangzhou Wang, <\/span>“Neutralizations, Altercasting, and Online Romance Fraud Victimizations,” Deviant Behavior<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2024<\/span><\/div>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A woman holding a phone, with a black and empty screen. Image by Tirachard Kumtanom<\/a> under Pexels license<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world where a connection is just a click away, many are looking for love online. While digital dating platforms have made dating more accessible for all, they are not without risk. Due to the anonymous nature of the internet, scammers and fraudsters have infiltrated the online dating world and taken advantage of vulnerable people. And new research from Timothy Dickinson<\/a> and Fangzhou Wang<\/a> helps unravel how these fraudsters manipulate their victims into sending them money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dickinson and Wang sent a set of scripted emails where they posed as fictitious victims to 87 real online romance fraudsters. They then analyzed these exchanges and looked for patterns. What they found was that fraudsters encouraged their victims to overcome or \u201cneutralize\u201d their hesitancy about sending money in four different ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, fraudsters say that they need money for something important, <\/em>such as bills or rent, which casts the victim into the role of \u201ccaregiver\u201d or \u201csupporter.\u201d Second, they appealed to the intimate nature of the romantic relationship<\/em> by making statements such as \u201cYou are the person I will spend the rest of my life with\u201d or \u201cI promise to love you more and more with every passing day and be there by your side till my last breath.\u201d This helps them reframe the monetary transaction as something that is normal to do in a real relationship. Third, the fraudsters \u201cdeny susceptibility\u201d by persuading victims that they hold more power<\/em> in the relationship. This can be done subtly through language such as \u201cit\u2019s up to you\u201d or \u201cif you want to\u201d. Fourth and lastly, they report that some fraudsters appeal to religious duty<\/em> since most major religions emphasize helping those in need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research shows how the vulnerability within dating makes room for fraudsters to manipulate and scam victims, and to be wary of the above 4 fraud tactics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timothy Dickinson and Fangzhou Wang, “Neutralizations, Altercasting, and Online Romance Fraud Victimizations,” Deviant Behavior, 2024 A woman holding a phone, with a black and empty screen. Image by Tirachard Kumtanom under Pexels license. In a world where a connection is just a click away, many are looking for love online. While digital dating platforms have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2217,"featured_media":11846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,15,33],"tags":[138689,138695,138704,138712,138685,138687,138708,138711,138707,138702,138693,3193,138692,138701,138694,138700,138686,138709,138691,138703,138698,138705,138688,138696,138710,138713,138690,138699,138697,138706],"class_list":["post-11845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-culture","category-health","tag-caregiver-role","tag-dating-platform-security","tag-digital-dating-risks","tag-digital-love-risks","tag-fangzhou-wang","tag-financial-fraud","tag-financial-manipulation","tag-fraud-detection","tag-internet-anonymity","tag-internet-fraudsters","tag-intimate-relationship-fraud","tag-online-dating","tag-online-dating-safety","tag-online-fraud-research","tag-online-romance-scams","tag-online-scams","tag-online-trust","tag-relationship-scams","tag-religious-appeal","tag-romance-fraud","tag-romance-scam-tactics","tag-scam-awareness","tag-scam-patterns","tag-scam-prevention","tag-scam-warning-signs","tag-scammer-tactics","tag-susceptibility-denial","tag-timothy-dickinson","tag-victim-manipulation","tag-victim-support"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/files\/2024\/07\/pexels-tirachard-kumtanom-112571-574284-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2217"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11845"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11848,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11845\/revisions\/11848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}