Online Romance Scams: Relational Dynamics and Psychological Characteristics of the Victims and Scammers. A Scoping Review

Clinical Practice and Epidemiology in Mental Health : CP & EMH
Anna ColucciaGiacomo Gualtieri

Abstract

Digital communication technologies can overcome physical, social and psychological barriers in building romantic relationships. Online romance scams are a modern form of fraud that has spread in Western societies along with the development of social media and dating apps. Through a fictitious Internet profile, the scammer develops a romantic relationship with the victim for 6-8 months, building a deep emotional bond to extort economic resources in a manipulative dynamic. There are two notable features: on the one hand, the double trauma of losing money and a relationship, on the other, the victim's shame upon discovery of the scam, an aspect that might lead to underestimation of the number of cases. This paper presents a scoping review of the quantitative and qualitative evidence on this issue, focusing on epidemiological aspects, relational dynamics, and the psychological characteristics of victims and scammers. A literature scoping review was conducted using electronic databases and descriptors. Studies were included if they had analyzed the phenomenon in any population or the relationship dynamics characterizing it through whatsoever typology of design. Scoping reviews are a form of knowledge synthesis, which incorporates a ...Continue Reading

References

Feb 1, 1996·Journal of Personality Assessment·D W Russell
Feb 7, 2012·Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking·Monica T Whitty, Tom Buchanan
Jul 19, 2012·Journal of Personality Assessment·Leonard J SimmsJane H Rotterman
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Citations

Jan 11, 2021·The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences·Annie L NguyenS Duke Han

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