Start Date
14-10-2022 10:45 AM
End Date
14-10-2022 12:00 PM
Location
Discovery Hall 213
Submission Type
Abstract
Track
Accounting and Finance
Abstract
It should not be a surprise that the increasing ubiquity of online dating and the use of social media generally for romantic liaisons has in turn provided fertile ground for a substantive increase in romantic con games and scams. The Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI in 2018 reported that online dating and romance scams was one of the top Internet scams reported with over 18,000 complaints reporting losses of over $362 million. (Whitty, 2015; pp444).
In 2020, this author received a fairly standard “broadcast” email that he immediately recognized as the opening play of a “Honey Pot” scam. In order to test Whitty’s standard model of how the scam proceeds, he (the author) played along with the game to obtain the exact sequence of lures that the scammer would deploy.
This presentation will detail the entire series of e-mails and photos and the author’s responses, review them step-by-step referencing Whitty’s standard paradigm, and present data on the types of personalities and circumstances that lead victims to fall prey to such scams. The presentation will solicit suggestions and feedback from the audience to improve the use of the case materials as a classroom discussion exercise.
[NOTE: This presentation will include narrative material and photographs of an explicit nature].
Included in
A "Russian Romance Scam" Discussion Case Study
Discovery Hall 213
It should not be a surprise that the increasing ubiquity of online dating and the use of social media generally for romantic liaisons has in turn provided fertile ground for a substantive increase in romantic con games and scams. The Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI in 2018 reported that online dating and romance scams was one of the top Internet scams reported with over 18,000 complaints reporting losses of over $362 million. (Whitty, 2015; pp444).
In 2020, this author received a fairly standard “broadcast” email that he immediately recognized as the opening play of a “Honey Pot” scam. In order to test Whitty’s standard model of how the scam proceeds, he (the author) played along with the game to obtain the exact sequence of lures that the scammer would deploy.
This presentation will detail the entire series of e-mails and photos and the author’s responses, review them step-by-step referencing Whitty’s standard paradigm, and present data on the types of personalities and circumstances that lead victims to fall prey to such scams. The presentation will solicit suggestions and feedback from the audience to improve the use of the case materials as a classroom discussion exercise.
[NOTE: This presentation will include narrative material and photographs of an explicit nature].
