Abstract
Qualitative research on the experiences of victims of online dating romance scams is limited. Following a phenomenological framework, this study explores victims’ accounts of interactions with offenders from first contact, development of romance, patterns of exploitation, eventual revelation, and financial and emotional costs of dating fraud. Ten participants from six countries who were victims of Nigerian romance fraudsters took part in one-to-one, semi-structured video interviews and an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was carried out. Four superordinate themes were identified from participants’ experiences: i) online romance, ii) exploitations, iii) revelations, and iv) reactions. These themes highlighted the uniqueness of the experiences of victims of online dating scams and the depth of emotional loss suffered after their victimization. Findings suggested that offenders target middle-aged women with troubled marriages or widows with inherited wealth, engage in lengthy pre-dating friendships with their targets, and deploy different forms of emotional blackmail to exploit their victims. These were found to have severe financial and long-term emotional consequences on victims. Participants reported they sought legal redress as a recovery strategy from their emotional sufferings. These findings have important practical and policy implications if online romance dating scams, and their financial and non-financial consequences are to be addressed.
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