Structural analysis of Online Romance Scams by applying the transtheoretical model in conjunction with the theory of personal love stories
- Authors: Kopp, Christian
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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- Description: The internet has become an important communications platform which people choose for personal interactions. One of the most popular manifestations is the creation and maintenance of social relationships using social and dating websites. Unscrupulous operators have identified its potential for reaching vulnerable people and have started using it as platform for their criminal activity in the form of so-called Online Romance Scams. Quickly, this cybercrime has become very successful and thus an increasing threat in the social networking environment. The Online Romance Scam causes considerable financial and emotional damage to the victims. In this research we introduce a theory which helps to explain the success of this scam. In a similar way to the “The Nigerian Letter”, we propose that the scam techniques appeal to strong emotions, which are clearly involved in Romantic relationships. We also assume that the same success factors of normal relationships contribute to the success of the Romance Scam. Previous research into normal relationships has identified personal “love stories” as an important factor for the development of relationships. We have suggested that these personal love stories will have a key role in fraudulent relationships. The aim of this research is to explore Online Romance Scams as a type of ‘virtual love’ which initially creates happiness for the victim in a virtual romantic relationship, but tragically then causes the victim to be separated from his or her savings. Using narrative research methodology, this research will establish a model of the Romance Scam structure and its variations regarding human romantic attitudes. During the research program, the analysis of publicly available data from the internet were used, and as a consequence of this, appropriate ethical usage of research data is discussed. Findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of the Online Romance Scam as significant crime, and provide information about the structure and the development of the modus operandi which can be used to identify an online relationship as a scam at an early phase in order to prevent significant harm to the victim.
- Description: Doctor of Philosophy
Ethical considerations when using online datasets for research purposes
- Authors: Kopp, Christian , Layton, Robert , Gondal, Iqbal , Sillitoe, Jim
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Automating Open Source Intelligence: Algorithms for OSINT p. 131-157
- Full Text: false
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- Description: The Internet has become an important community communications platform, supporting a range of programs and virtual environments. While there are many ways in which people choose to develop personal interactions over the Internet, one of the most popular manifestations is the creation and maintenance of social relationships using social and dating websites. In this chapter, the collection and use of data from such sites is assessed from an ethical frame, and key concepts such as informed consent, information, comprehension, and voluntariness are outlined.
The role of love stories in Romance Scams : A qualitative analysis of fraudulent profiles
- Authors: Kopp, Christian , Layton, Robert , Sillitoe, Jim , Gondal, Iqbal
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Journal of Cyber Criminology Vol. 9, no. 2 (2016), p. 205-216
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- Reviewed:
- Description: The Online Romance Scam is a very successful scam which causes considerable financial and emotional damage to its victims. In this paper, we provide a perspective that might be helpful to explain the success of this scam. In a similar way to the "The Nigerian letter", we propose that the scam techniques appeal to strong emotions, which are clearly involved in Romantic relationships. We also assume that the same success factors found in normal relationships contribute to the success of the romance scam. In an exploratory study using a qualitative analysis of fraudulent profiles from an international dating website, we examined this assumption. The findings show that personal affinities related to personal romantic imaginations, which are described by personal love stories, play an important role in the success of a romance scam. © 2016 International Journal of Cyber Criminology (IJCC).
“I am your perfect online partner" analysis of dating profiles used in cybercrime
- Authors: Kopp, Christian , Sillitoe, James , Gondal, Iqbal
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Asia Pacific Journal of Advanced Business and Social Studies Vol. 3, no. 2 (2017), p. 207-217
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- Reviewed:
- Description: Internet Online Dating has become an influential mainstream social practice facilitating the finding of a partner. Unscrupulous operators have identified its potential and started to use this platform for identity theft in form of so called Online Romance Scams. Quickly, this cybercrime has become very successful and thus, an increasing threat in the social networking environment. So far, very little is known about its structure and the reason for its success, and this needs to be known in order to be able to fight it efficiently. This research tries to contribute to this knowledge, and argues that scammers use so-called ‘Love Stories’, which represent personal affinities related to romantic relationships, to their benefit when tailoring common narratives as part of fraudulent online profiles to attract their victims. We look at these different types of ‘Personal Love Stories’ and discuss how they can be used in this type of scam, followed by a qualitative analysis of fraudulent profiles from three different international websites to examine this assumption
Online romance scam: Expensive e-living for romantic happiness
- Authors: Kopp, Christian , Sillitoe, James , Gondal, Iqbal , Layton, Robert
- Date: 2016
- Type: Text , Conference proceedings
- Relation: Proceedings of the 29th Bled eConference: Digital Economy (BLED 2016), Slovenia, pp.175-189 p. 15
- Full Text:
- Description: The Online Romance Scam is a very successful scam which causes considerable financial and emotional damage to its victims. It is based on building a relationship which establishes a deep trust that causes victims to voluntarily transfer funds to the scammer. The aim of this research is to explore online dating scams as a type of e-Living which initially creates happiness for the victim in a virtual romantic relationship, but tragically then causes the victim to be separated from his or her savings. Using narrative research methodology, this research will establish a model of the romance scam structure and its variations regarding human romantic attitudes, and will develop a theory which explains how the victim is moved through the phases of the scam. Findings of this research will contribute to the knowledge of the Online Romance Scam as e-Crime and provide information about the structure and the development of the modus operandi which can be used to identify an online relationship as a scam at an early phase in order to prevent significant harm to the victim.