Love at first sleight: a review of scammer techniques in online romance fraud

Romance fraud, where a scammer exploits a victim for monetary gain under the guise of ‘true love’, is a relatively new form of cybercrime which has become increasingly prevalent. Attempts to tackle romance fraud have been made by law enforcement and dating platforms. The latter commonly utilise awareness campaigns, informing users about the risks associated with online dating and how to spot warning signs. However, such campaigns tend to be overly generic, repeatedly giving the same advice. Other campaigns provide vague or outdated advice, which leaves readers unable to protect themselves. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of the varying approaches that scammers can take on the path to exploiting their victims both in selecting a suitable target and keeping them engaged as part of the scam. Findings highlight that methods by which scammers target, select, and exploit victims of romance fraud can vary greatly. Rather than following a strict structure as depicted in awareness campaigns, romance fraud is a continually evolving, and unique form of cybercrime with multiple variations at each stage of the process. These variations also lay the foundations for future studies on the overlap of cybercrime and abuse, and the role of organised crime in romance fraud.