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This paper aims to examine predictors (personality, belief systems, expertise and response time) of detecting online romance scams.

The online study asked 261 participants to rate whether a profile was a scam or a genuine profile. Participants were also asked to complete a personality inventory, belief scales and demographic, descriptive questions. The online study was also designed to measure response time.

It was found that those who scored low in romantic beliefs, high in impulsivity, high in consideration of future consequences, had previously spotted a romance scam and took longer response times were more likely to accurately distinguish scams from genuine profiles. Notably, the research also found that it was difficult to detect scams. The research also found that it was important to adapt Whitty’s (2013) “Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model” to include a stage named: “human detection of scam versus genuine profiles”.

This is the first study, to the author’s knowledge, that examines predictors of human accuracy in detecting romance scams. Dating sites and government e-safety sites might draw upon these findings to help improve human detection and protect users from this financial and psychologically harmful cyberscam.

The purpose of this paper is to undertake an exploratory study on mapping the investment fraud methods and tactics used by scammers against the emerging literature on scam compliance.

Qualitative interviews were conducted with victims of investment fraud supported by the engagement of specialist counsellors and allied health professionals who specialise in scam victim support (including investment fraud).

Investment fraud offending in the cases sampled exhibited a number of dominant offending traits and methodological themes. These included a strong reliance or dependency on legitimate service provisioning on the part of the fraudster and the use of key trust measures to lure the victim. The empirical data revealed the presence of a number of scam compliance influences captured in the literature, including trust, social influence and urgency, as well as others not previously documented that pave the way for further research attention.

The research only examined a sample of investment fraud victim experiences that engaged a national victim support service immediately following detection over a 24 month period.

The research found that offending relied upon the participation of trust-building signals and measures. Legitimate economy participants appear to play a dominant role in enabling investment scam activities, further creating efficiencies for criminals. The offending tended to follow a number of distinct but connected phases. Impacts were influenced by specific offending attributes, such as whether remote access was given to offenders of a victim’s device, as well as the nature of the identity credentials access.

The research has practically applied an emerging view of scam compliance influences and vulnerabilities within an investment fraud context. The study is novel in its thematic analysis of the distinct phases and tactics used by scammers.

This paper aims to explain the role of money mules in money laundering and financial crimes through the discussion of case studies. The authors also explain the red flags of money mules and provide advice.

The authors use a case analysis approach. The paper mainly discusses ten cases about the use of money mules in financial crimes.

It has been found that money mules help criminal syndicates to remain anonymous while moving funds around the world. The unemployment, internet usage involvement of teenagers and youth in money laundering-related crime around the world are on a rising trend, and criminals are constantly looking for their victims by exploiting their mental and financial condition.

This paper provides case studies to understand the role of money mules in money laundering and financial crime.

The issue of financial abuse is highlighted in the Care Act (2014). One category of financial abuse is consumer fraud or “scams.” Evidence suggests that scams are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, yet how scams impact older adults remains under-researched. The purpose of this paper is to report data from 80 older adults’ written responses to a Mass Observation Archive Directive, commissioned in autumn 2015, which focused on scams.

A qualitative approach was used with data captured via written responses to a set of questions. There was no limit on the length of written accounts, and respondents remained anonymous. Data were analysed thematically, resulting in four key themes.

The data indicated scams impact individuals in terms of health and well-being, irrespective of whether they have experienced financial loss, and trigger implementation of strategies intended to avoid being defrauded. There was also evidence of scam-related stigma with individuals who are defrauded being subject to derision and censure.

Individuals who have been victimised by fraudsters may need access to practical and emotional support. This requires the design of appropriate interventions and the stigma associated with being scammed to be addressed.

This paper adopts an original approach to collecting rich, candid data about an under-researched topic. The authors highlight that anti-scam interventions should equip individuals to identify and avoid scams without inciting fear or anxiety; proposing this may be facilitated by drawing on health and safety risk assessment protocol when designing anti-scam interventions.

The evolution of digital technology has changed the way in which we, as a global society, socialise and conduct business. This growth has led to an increasing reliance on technology, much more interconnectedness and in turn, an expansion of criminal opportunities, known now as “cybercrime”. This study aims to explore the experience of victimisation, perceptions of cybercrime and use of online crime prevention strategies.

The study involved a survey of a representative sample of the adult Australian population. The study sample was made up of 595 Australian adult participants. The study seeks to better understand how previous victimisation, perception of cybercrime prevalence and perception of harm caused by cybercrime are related to the use of online crime prevention strategies. It seeks to contribute to a body of work that has found that crime prevention education focused on increasing knowledge is limited in its effectiveness in reducing victimisation.

This study identifies key levers, in particular perceived prevalence and harm of cybercrime, as critical in the use of online crime prevention strategies by potential victims.

As such, this study provides an important evidence base on which to develop more effective online crime prevention education and awareness campaigns to reduce cybervictimisation.

The practical implications include the relationship between cybervictimisation and self-protective online strategies of potential victims and the development of more effective online crime prevention programmes.

The research takes a different perspective from much of the previous research, seeking to better understand how attitudinal factors (perceived prevalence of cybercrime and perceived harm of cybercrime) might motivate or influence the use of online crime prevention strategies by potential victims.

This study aims to define fraud crimes, its most prevalent categories and examines the most common of these schemes during the COVID-19 pandemic by drawing on the experiences of several countries and the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) updated paper issued during the pandemic.

This study uses a comparative analysis methodology in conjunction with a descriptive analytical approach to compare four FATF member countries in light of the fraud activities that occurred on their territory during the pandemic and their respective law enforcement measures. It makes use of secondary data sources, namely, the theoretical literature on the subject and FATF’s updated paper on money laundering and terrorism financing during COVID-19.

This study found that fraudsters exploited the difficult circumstances during the pandemic in the majority of countries worldwide and identified various fraud schemes based on the incidents reviewed, such as the abuse of economic stimulus in Italy, counterfeiting medical goods in Brazil and investment fraud schemes in California, USA. In Spain, the fraud schemes tended to be cyber related. Such variations were also observed by the law enforcement agencies in the above-mentioned countries.

Numerous studies on fraud schemes are available to researchers. However, few such studies have been conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study makes a unique contribution to the literature.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has threatened physical and mental health, and changed the behaviour and decision-making processes of individuals, organisations, and institutions worldwide. As many services move online due to the pandemic, COVID-19-themed cyber fraud is also growing. This article explores cyber fraud victimization and cyber security threats during COVID-19 using psychological and traditional criminological theories. It also provides a COVID-19-themed cyber fraud typology using empirical evidence from institutional and agency reports. Through organizing COVID-19-themed cyber fraud into four different categorizations, we aim to offer classification insights to researchers and industry professionals so that stakeholders can effectively manage emerging cyber fraud risks in our current pandemic.

The approach the study take for this conceptual paper is typology.

Jamaica continues to experience financial crimes particularly in cyberspace including e-fraud, identity theft, credit card forging, money laundering and terrorist activities. Spoofing, spamming, virus propagation, spear phishing, buffer overflow and denial of service continue to be weaknesses found in organization’s cybersecurity in Jamaica. With the emergence of cryptocurrency and digital currency it is important that Jamaica uses intelligence led policing and data analysis to reduce and prevent financial crimes such as money laundering and corruption proceeds.

Literature review; review of domestic legislation; review of current matters in courts.

Cybersecurity is no longer a pure computer security issue but instead, cybersecurity is seen as a national policy matter because the illicit use of cyberspace could have a significant impact on the financial sector in Jamaica. Cyberattacks have been successfully targeting the financial sector worldwide. While much of the efforts and resources to address the risk imposed by these cyberattacks are directed at developed economies, far less attention has been devoted to developing nations. Because many of these nations such as Jamaica have modest cyber capabilities, their ability to respond to cyberattacks can be limited, yet they need to respond to these attacks to protect their critical financial infrastructure.

There are few scholarly articles that focus on cybersecurity issues and legislation in Jamaica.

The purpose of this paper is to gain in-depth understandings of the stages involved in the case of a romance scam victim who was unknowingly used as a drug mule. The work compares this case with established research in this field. It also seeks to learn more about the strategies used by these cybercriminals.

The research presents a case study of a victim of a romance scam who was arrested for drug trafficking. The research involves a grounded theory analysis of interviews with the victim, legal team and family members and analysis of her instant messenger chat logs and email communications.

The analysis identified a variation on previous stage models of romance scams and re-names this as the “romance scammers” strategy model. It also replicates previous work on scammers’ techniques and highlights some new strategies, including positively and negatively framing messages, unconditional positive regard, activating norms of romantic relationships, cognitive immersion, manipulating role, sleep deprivation and signing is believing.

These findings could be used to help guide future similar court cases. Moreover, they can be drawn upon to advance future research on romance scams, as well as scams in general.

This is the first in-depth case study of a romance scam victim involved in drug trafficking and is the first research on romance scams to examine in depth a case, taking into account textual exchanges. While not undermining previous research, this paper provides valuable insights that are lacking in previous qualitative work on cyber scam victims.